Search

The construction of water-saving renovation projects can bring substantial benefits to the development of agriculture, but it may also be accompanied by negative impacts, especially in a large-scale irrigation district. Hence, there is always controversy, and it is vital and necessary to investigate the effectiveness of water-saving renovation. In this study, the Yahekou irrigation district, one of the largest districts in China, is selected as the case to explore the beneficial influence and adverse impact. Kriging interpolation, Pearson correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis are employed to study the temporal evolution, spatial distribution, and domain influencing factors. The results show that the water-saving renovation project in the Yahekou irrigation district had significant water-saving benefits during the period of 1998–2021, and the average annual water use of the irrigation district decreased by 61%. Canal lining is an important influencing factor for the decrease in irrigation water use, with a correlation coefficient of −0.538, B of −18.669, and R2 of 0.290. Furthermore, the water-saving renovation of irrigation districts is not the dominant reason for changes in groundwater depth. Meanwhile, the groundwater depth below ground level (the level DBGL) in the irrigation district increased by 82%. The combined effects of atmospheric precipitation, canal lining, river sand mining, and groundwater exploitation have led to a sustained increase in groundwater depth in the study area. The results obtained from this study can provide valuable and scientific reference for agricultural water resource management over the large-scale irrigation district. This article focuses on the impact of water-saving renovation on ecological and technical indicators such as water use and the groundwater DBGL. However, the impact of water-saving renovation in irrigation districts is multifaceted; subsequent research can explore the impact of water-saving renovation projects on society and the economy.

Abstract Low grade waste heat accounts for ~65% of total waste heat, but conventional waste heat recovery technology exhibits low conversion efficiency for low grade waste heat recovery. Hence, we designed a thermomagnetic generator for such applications. Unlike its usual role as the coil core or big magnetic yoke in previous works, here the magnetocaloric material acts as a switch that controls the magnetic circuit. This makes it not only have the advantage of flux reversal of the pretzel-like topology, but also present a simpler design, lower magnetic stray field, and higher performance by using less magnetocaloric material than preceding devices. The effects of key structural and system parameters were studied through a combination of experiments and finite element simulations. The optimized max power density P Dmax produced by our device is significantly higher than those of other existing active thermomagnetic, thermo, and pyroelectric generators. Such high performance shows the effectiveness of our topology design of magnetic circuit with magnetocaloric switch.

Abstract Background At low levels, carbon monoxide (CO) has been shown to have beneficial effects on multiple organs and tissues through its potential anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and anti-proliferative properties. However, the effect of CO-releasing molecule (CORM)-3, a water-soluble CORM, on ischemic stroke and its mechanism of action are still unclear. Methods We investigated the role of CORM-3 in the mouse model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). CORM-3 or saline was administered to mice by retro-orbital injection at the time of reperfusion after 1-h tMCAO or at 1 h after sham surgery. We assessed infarct volume and brain water content at 24 and 72 h after ischemia, blood-brain barrier permeability at 6 and 72 h after ischemia, and neurologic deficits on days 1, 3, 7, and 14. Results Among mice that underwent tMCAO, those that received CORM-3 had significantly smaller infarct volume and greater expression of neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN) and microtubule-associated protein 2 than did saline-treated mice. CORM-3-treated mice had significantly fewer activated microglia in the peri-infarction zone than did control mice and exhibited downregulated expression of ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule (Iba)-1, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin 1β. CORM-3-treated mice had significantly lower brain water content and enhanced neurologic outcomes on days 3, 7, and 14 post-tMCAO. Lastly, CORM-3 treatment reduced Evans blue leakage; increased expression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β, tight junction protein ZO-1, and matrix protein laminin; and decreased protein level of matrix metalloproteinase-9. Conclusion CORM-3 treatment at the time of reperfusion reduces ischemia-reperfusion-induced brain injury by suppressing neuroinflammation and alleviating blood-brain barrier disruption. Our data suggest that CORM-3 may provide an effective therapy for ischemic stroke.

Resistance associated substitutions (RASs) can reduce the efficacy of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) targeting hepatitis C virus (HCV) and lead to treatment failure. Clinical data of HCV NS5A RASs prevalence are limited in China and need to be investigated. A total of 878 unique patient samples with different genotypes (GT) (1b: n = 489, 2a: n = 203, 3a: n = 60, 3b: n = 78, 6a: n = 48) were collected from around mainland China by KingMed Laboratory and analyzed for NS5A RASs distribution by Sanger sequencing. Phylogeographic analyses based on NS5A domain 1 sequences indicated circulation of both locally and nationally epidemic strains. Relatively high frequency of Y93H (14.1%) was only detected in GT1b but not in other subtypes. High frequency of L31M was found in both GT2a (95.6%) and GT3b (98.7%) sequences. Due to the overlapping incidence of A30K, 96% of GT3b isolates had NS5A RASs combination A30K + L31M, which confers high levels of resistance to most NS5A inhibitors. No RASs were detected in GT6a strains. Meanwhile, baseline NS5A RASs fingerprints were also evaluated in 185 DAA treatment-naive GT1b patients with next generation sequencing method. Patients presenting with Y93H had statistically higher entropy of HCV NS5A sequences. Taken together, subtype-specific distribution patterns of NS5A RASs were observed. GT1b patients with higher HCV complexity tend to have a greater chance of Y93H presence, while GT3b patients are naturally resistant to current NS5A inhibitors and their treatment may pose a challenge to real-world DAA application.

In this letter, we discuss the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a bi-layer fully functional near-perfect metamaterial absorber (MMA) in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR), which is broadband and generally insensitive to polarization up to a 60° incidence angle. A spectral absorptance of ⩾99% was attained simultaneously at multiple LWIR wavelengths, with a bandwidth of 2 μm where the absorptance is ⩾90%. This remarkable behavior is attributed to the strong mixing of coupling modes between the two resonators and the ground plane in the presence of a lossy dielectric, in which single layer structures do not exhibit. Furthermore, we show, by comparing two different MMA structures, how the absorption can be tailored by design within and across several IR subdivisions through a slight change in geometrical parameters. The bi-layer MMA has the immediate application of a functionally versatile, low-profile thermal sensor or emitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility of temporally and spatially coherent thermal emission has been demonstrated utilizing stacked gratings. We demonstrate that the metallic grating with narrow air slit behaves like a homogeneous slab with large permittivity and small permeability and find that the interaction between the metallic grating and the Bragg grating gives rise to impendence matching at wavelengths located in the photonic band gap of the Bragg grating, which enables the stacked gratings to perform high emission with ultranarrow spectrum and antenna-like spatial response. This paves the way towards the design of a novel infrared source platform for applications such as thermal analysis, imaging, security, biosensing, and medical diagnoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High absorption efficiency is particularly desirable at present for various microtechnological applications including microbolometers, photodectors, coherent thermal emitters, and solar cells. Here we report the design, characterization, and experimental demonstration of an ultrathin, wide-angle, subwavelength high performance metamaterial absorber for optical frequencies. Experimental results show that an absorption peak of 88% is achieved at the wavelength of ∼1.58 μm, though theoretical results give near perfect absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]