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Microsatellites have been widely applied in the fields of communication, remote sensing, navigation and science exploration due to its characteristics of low cost, flexible launch mode and short development period. However, conventional solid-propellant have difficulties in starting and interrupting combustion because combustion is autonomously sustained after ignition. Herein, we proposed a new type of solid-propellant named laser-controlled solid propellant, which is sensitive to laser irradiation and can be started or interrupted by switching on/off the continuous wave laser. To demonstrate the feasibility and investigate the controllable combustion behaviors under different laser on/off conditions, the combustion parameters including burning rate, ignition delay time and platform pressure were tested using pressure sensor, high-speed camera and thermographic camera. The results showed that the increase of laser-on or laser-off duration both will lead to the decrease of propellant combustion performance during re-ignition and re-combustion process. This is mainly attributed to the laser attenuation caused by the accumulation of combustion residue and the change of chamber ambient temperature. Simultaneously, the multiple ignition tests revealed that the increased chamber ambient temperature after combustion can make up for the energy loss of laser attenuation and expansion of chamber cavity. However, the laser-controlled combustion performance of solid propellant displayed a decrease trend with the addition of ignition times. Nevertheless, the results still exhibited good laser-controlled agility of laser-controlled solid propellant and manifested its inspiring potential in many aspects of space missions.

In view of the high cost and complex operation of the traditional chemical method for the determination of the anaerobic digestion (AD) process, this study investigated the feasibility of using electrochemistry analysis to determine the effect of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on the AD process. The quantity of electric charge of Fe3O4 NPs modified graphite electrode in sodium acetate electrolyte was higher than that of graphite electrode. The addition of Fe3O4 NPs was beneficial to improve the electrochemical activity of the electrode. On this basis, enzymes and microorganisms were extracted from anaerobic reactors containing different concentrations of Fe3O4 NPs to make electrodes respectively to further investigate the effects of Fe3O4 NPs on enzyme and microbial activities in AD. The electrochemical analysis results of the enzyme electrodes and microbial electrodes showed that the quantity of electric charge produced by the group of 200 mg/L Fe3O4 NPs was the highest. The cumulative biogas production of 200 mg/L Fe3O4 NPs was 809 mL/g VS, and better than other groups. These results showed that 200 mg/L Fe3O4 NPs was the best dosage, and the electrochemical analysis has higher sensitivity in the AD detection.

BiOI/Bi2O2CO3 two-dimensional (2D) heteronanostructures (HNSs) have been crafted by the simple but effective ion-exchange technique in this work. Besides the routine advantages of pristine 2D mater...

Longchuan River Basin is located in Chuxiong (central Yunnan province, China) that is subject to severe drought. Agriculture is critical to local economy, which can lead to intense agricultural activity. Accordingly, delineating groundwater potential zones and developing usable groundwater resources are required to meet potable and irrigating water demands in the zone. Remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS) and improved fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) were adopted to delineate the groundwater potential zones to assess the groundwater availability in Longchuan River Basin. The surveys of China geological map, Landsat 8 OLI and GDEM Aster satellite images were employed to generate eight thematic layers, i.e., lithology, land use/land cover (LULC), lineaments density, rainfall, slope, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), drainage density and elevation; subsequently, the mentioned layers were converted into raster data in ArcGIS. According to the ability of thematic layer to impact groundwater potential, the mentioned criteria were weighted differently by improved FAHP. Next, a map based on weighted linear combination (WLC) model was generated. Lastly, the groundwater potential zones of study area fell into ‘poor’ zone, ‘moderate’ zone and ‘good’ zone. As revealed from the results of the study, nearly 31.22% of the area exhibited ‘good’ groundwater potential, approximately 36.46% was terrain exhibiting ‘moderate’ groundwater potential, and the residual 32.23% were considered to exhibit ‘poor’ groundwater potential. The results provide more insights, and the groundwater potential zones map can be exploited by local governments for groundwater resources management and exploitation.

There are many studies on the use of lasers as a special mutation-breeding method to select microorganisms and plant seeds. In this study, we screened 72 microalgal mutants from the Chlorella samples irradiated using three types of laser (He-Ne, Nd:YAG and SC). Finally, 2 mutants N2 and S3 from wild Chlorella pyrenoidosa, and 1 mutant, N3 from Chlorella pacifica having high potential for biodiesel applications with high yield and stability, were obtained after comprehensive comparison and systematic screening. The average total lipid productivities of the 3 mutants were 19.90 ± 2.46 mg L−1 day−1 for N2, 29.82 ± 4.45 mg L−1 day−1 for S3 and 20.56 ± 5.69 mg L−1 day−1 for N3, respectively. The 3 mutants were proved they could display higher lipid productivity, lipid content, growth rate and transcriptional expression trends of 7 genes relevant to fatty acid biosynthesis than the wild strain in 10 continuous generation subcultures.

In this paper, the fracture surfaces of a light-conversion film were observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and then, the fluorescence spectra and mechanical properties of the film were tested. The SEM results show that the average diameter of the light conversion agent is 500 nm. The results of the mechanical properties tests show that the tensile strengths of light-conversion film increase from 9.86 to 12.16 MPa and that the strain at breakage increases from 2.37% to 2.75%. In addition, the application effects of the light-conversion film were studied. The results indicate that plant height, length of the maximum leaf, width of the maximum leaf and breadth of the plants increase by 24.43%, 15.30%, 15.60% and 19.07%, respectively. The quality of Chinese flowering cabbages treated with the light-conversion film is superior, including a 9.09% increase in the soluble protein content, a 21.27% increase in the polyphenol content, and a 19.15% increase in the soluble sugar content. Based on these results, light-conversion films can be applied in agricultural production.

Botryococcus braunii, a green alga that can produce a variety of secondary metabolites such as lipids, protein, and carotenoid, is considered a potential biodiesel feedstock for industrial commercialization. This study investigated the effects of exogenous plant growth regulators (PGRs) (6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA), abscisic acid (ABA), 2,4-epibrassinolide (EBR), ethephon (ETH), gibberellic acid (GA3), 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), salicylic acid (SA), and spermidine (SPD)) on the growth, protein, carotenoid and lipid biosynthesis, fatty acid composition, and expression of fatty acid biosynthetic genes in Botryococcus braunii B12 (B. braunii B12). NAA was the most effective inducer of microalgae biomass, which increased approximately 2-fold compared with that of the control. The maximum lipid accumulation and content were found under 15 mg/L GA3 treatment; the lipid accumulation reached 0.27 g/L, and the lipid content reached 60.25%. Moreover, the soluble protein content reached 28.49 mg/g DCW under 0.05 mg/L 6-BA treatment. Similarly, the highest carotenoid content (108.70 mg/g DCW) was observed under 50 mg/L NAA treatment. Furthermore, all PGRs altered the fatty acid composition of B. braunii B12, particularly the C16-C18 content (%). Finally, the effects of eight PGRs on seven lipid-related genes (acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP), biotin carboxylase (BC), ω-3 fatty acid desaturase (FAD), acyl carrier protein thioesterase (FATA), 3-ketoacyl carrier protein synthase gene (KAS), malonyl-CoA:ACP transacylase (MCTK), and stearoyl-ACP-desaturase (SAD)) were studied by qRT-PCR, and an apparent correlation was found between gene expression and lipid synthesis in the microalgae.

Lineaments refer to the linear or curvilinear textures on remote sensing image, whose general spatial distribution characteristics are often the response of deep geological sturcture at the surface. Firstly, we use wavelet modulus maximum transformation to detect the edges with 4 scales on Landsat – 8 OLI B5 image and analyze their multi-scale characteristics. As the result, it is determined that the optimal scale of edge detection is 4, and the outline that consist of the edge pixels is roughly corresponding to the geological structure of mine area. Thus the incomplete lineaments have been extracted by using the 2D otsu algorithm. Secondly, the hillshade map generated based on DEM is processed to generate binarized linear shadow. Finally, the linear shadow is superimposed on the lineaments preliminarily extracted to obtain the optimized lineaments. Experiment results show that, based on the method, there are some deformation and displacement between the lineaments extracted and the actual geological structure, and it fail to effectively extract Qilinchang Fault, but lineaments are in good correspondence with Kuangshanchang Fault, Dongtou Fault and Niulan River Fault, which are basically in accord with the geological structure framework of the mine area.

Lineaments whose dominant azimuth reflects the basic framework of regional structure are mainly related to faults, but their spatial morphology and characteristics are different at different scales. The changing characteristics of multi-scale lineaments extracted by wavelet edge detection are quantitatively analyzed through image characteristics, azimuth characteristics, histogram, box-plot and paired-samples T test. As the result, the difference of “proportion of NE structure” in different areas becomes more and more significant with the increasing of wavelet transformation scale. Three geological variables extracted based on wavelet edge image of Level 3, “proportion of NE structure”, “density of NE structure” and “entropy”, are synthesize by factor analysis, then the results show that the distribution of the values referring to the “dominance of NE structure” are basically consistent with the structure framework of Huize lead-zinc mine area, that is, the dominant position of NE lineaments in the triangular region enclosed by the large main faults such as Kuangshanchang Fault and Qilinchang Fault is the most obvious. The potential relation between remote sensing lineaments and actual geological structure can be found through multi-scale edge detection and characteristics analysis.

Supramolecular crosslinked porous lignin-based polyacrylic acid was laboratory-synthesized by copolymerizing lignin-grafted acrylic acid of potassium persulfate as an initiator and N,N-methylene bisacryl amide as a crosslinker. The effects of lignin type on the absorbent properties and the pore structure were studied. The results showed that the addition of lignin affects the swelling behavior and the pore structure of the resin. Lignopyrogallol-grafted-polyacrylic acid resin (LP-g-PAA) exhibited the best absorption properties (2137 g/g) and the highest BET specific surface area. Furthermore, the swelling behavior of the resins complied with the Schott’s swelling kinetics model. The salt tolerance of the LP-g-PAA resin was studied, and the results were as follows: KCl > KNO3 ≈ LiCl > K2SO4 > K2CO3 > CaCl2 > FeCl3.

In this paper we study the states of Poisson type and infinitely divisible states on compact quantum groups. Each state of Poisson type is infinitely divisible, i.e., it admits n-th root for all $$n\ge 1$$. The main result is that on finite quantum groups infinitely divisible states must be of Poisson type. This generalizes Boge’s theorem concerning infinitely divisible measures (commutative case) and Parthasarathy’s result on infinitely divisible positive definite functions (cocommutative case). Two proofs are given.

Sekine quantum groups are a family of finite quantum groups. The main result of this paper is to compute all the idempotent states on Sekine quantum groups, which completes the work of Franz and Skalski. This is achieved by solving a complicated system of equations using linear algebra and basic number theory. From this we discover a new class of non-Haar idempotent states. The order structure of the idempotent states on Sekine quantum groups is also discussed. Finally we give a sufficient condition for the convolution powers of states on Sekine quantum group to converge., 18 pages, 2 figures

The influence of the detection direction on the quality of spectral data was not taken into account, which is catastrophic for some samples where the reflectivity direction was very different. To explore the directional characteristics of mixed pixels reflectivity, we used an ASD FieldSpec3 spectroradiometer to carry out multi-angle spectral measurement experiments in the laboratory, and the direction error model is established. As a result, the proportions of black area (PBA) and the observed azimuths (Φ) will affect the reflectivity of the mixed pixel in the visible light band. It is found that when the PBA is close to 0, the reflectivity distribution of mixed pixels is characterized by the reflected energy reflecting uniformly around the entire hemisphere space. When PBA is close to 1, there is a significant difference in the reflectivity of mixed pixels in 2π space. The direction error model better reflects the reflectivity changes caused by PBA and observed azimuth. The mean absolute error of the estimated reflectivity compared with the measured value is only 0.047. When the PBA is large, the estimation accuracy of the model is higher. When the PBA is small, and the observed azimuth is large, the accuracy of the model is slightly worse. The “two-block” mixed pixel is an ideal sample to satisfy the direction error model, while a dispersed “multi-block” mixed pixel is not applicable to the correction model. When conducting mixed pixel spectral measurement experiment, the influence of the detection azimuth on the spectral reflectivity should be fully considered, which is beneficial to improve the reliability of experiments on multi-angle spectral measurements of mixed pixels.

A large amount of waste activated sludge (WAS) harms the ecological environment, and anaerobic digestion (AD) is an effective method for WAS treatment. In this study, activated carbon (AC)/ nano zero-valent iron (NZVI) was synthesized by a liquid-phase reduction method, and was used to boost methane production. The associated mechanisms and effects of additives on AD during the addition and removal stage were investigated systematically. Compared to the blank group, the cumulative methane production was increased by 14.3%, 26.3% and 34.1% in the groups of AC, NZVI and AC/NZVI, respectively. The addition of AC/NZVI significantly increased the concentration of VFAs and promoted the hydrolysis and acidification of WAS. After the AD of the additives addition stage was finished, the additives were removed and the sludge was replenished in all groups, the methanogenesis performance of the experimental groups was significantly inhibited. The cumulative methane production in the AC and AC/NZVI groups was 21.7% and 13.5% lower than the blank group, respectively. The experimental results have a good correlation with curve fitting by the modified Gompertz model. The modified Gompertz model found that AC, NZVI and AC/NZVI increased the methanogenic potential and maximum methane production rate of WAS, but also prolonged the lag-phase time. AC/NZVI might play a role in coupling effects. It could not only maintain the original characteristics of NZVI and increase its stability, but also develop the advantages of AC promoting direct interspecies electron transfer. Microbial community analysis indicated that the abundance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens was enriched by AC/NZVI.

Groundwater refers to a vital resource for sustainable development of the earth. As fueled by the economic development, population growth, and the expansion of irrigation area, groundwater has been increasingly demanded. It is noteworthy that groundwater seriously limits the sustainable development in the arid desert areas of Africa and Asia. To tackle down this issue, modified weight standardization (MWS) and improved fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP) theories and geographic information system (GIS) were adopted to find the groundwater potential zones (GWPZ) in the Ejina Oasis of northwestern China. A range of thematic layers (i.e., lithology, lineament density, soil moisture, normalized difference vegetation index, rainfall, biomass, drainage density, slope, elevation, and land use/land cover) were built with the existing maps and the remote sensing data. The mentioned thematic layers were standardized using MWS. Subsequently, the IFAHP was adopted to assign weight to the thematic layers. Lastly, all the layers were integrated in GIS to map the GWPZ. The MWS-IFAHP–based groundwater potential map revealed four categories: “excellent” (13.91%), “good” (21.97%), “moderate” (34.79%), and “poor” (29.33%). As indicated from the validation of the results, GIS-based MWS and IFAHP technologies can be used to effectively generate groundwater potential map under an accuracy of 80%. The results of this study are critical to plan and develop scarce groundwater resources in arid areas efficiently at a low cost, which can ensure sustainable water supply in the future.

Non-invasively diagnosis of actinic keratoses (AK) is important for preventing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be used to detect the cross-sectional skin micromorphology with sufficient resolution and imaging depth. It has the capability to reveal the changes in skin microstructure during the development of AK. Therefore, OCT can serve as a tool for diagnosing AK. This study explores the feasibility of OCT in evaluating the structural changes in mouse skin at the different stages following exposure to ultraviolet radiation. The performance of OCT is compared with histology, the gold standard in this context. The imaging results demonstrate that a wave-shaped irregular dermo-epidermal junction (DEJ), as well as the continuous thickening of the epidermis, are useful diagnostic parameters for diagnosing AK. Histological examinations confirm these observations. These findings emphasize the need for effective skin protection or medical treatment once changes in the DEJ and epidermis are detected. OCT shows strong potential for non-invasive evaluation of such changes and AK development, and can be used for the prevention of cSCC without the necessity of taking biopsies.

Deciduous broadleaved forests and evergreen broadleaved forests constitute the majority of global subtropical forests. Subtropical vegetation has faced strong anthropogenic pressures, and many natural forests destroyed throughout history have been restored to secondary forests due to various government conservation policies. In early forest restoration, deciduous and evergreen species with significantly different functional traits play different roles and jointly determine secondary forest successional trends, questioning how coexistence and competition between evergreen and deciduous trees profoundly impact community assembly and forest restoration. Although subtropical forest has been seriously threatened, scientific information on how these important ecological processes influence secondary forest regrowth is lacking. We established a 6-ha plot in a subtropical evergreen broadleaved forests in Guanshan National Nature Reserve, southeastern China. All trees individual were stem-mapped, identified to species and measured for diameter at breast height (DBH) and height. Pair-correlation and marked correlation functions indicated that deciduous species are comparatively more vulnerable to density-dependent regulation and size reduction in adjacent individuals during secondary forest succession. The interspecific association between deciduous and evergreen trees in the same DBH class gradually changes from significantly positive to negative as DBH increases, indicating seedling coexistence and competition between large late successional trees at a fine scale. Our results indicate that self-thinning caused by conspecific density-dependent regulation in deciduous trees and interspecific repulsion between evergreen and deciduous trees lead to forest gaps where clustered offspring naturally regenerate to coexist, embodying the important coexistence mechanisms facilitating secondary forest recovery to the zonal climax vegetation types dominated by evergreen species in this region. These findings improve our understanding of the self-recovery mechanisms of subtropical forests in secondary succession and provide important theoretical support to accelerate the future recovery of secondary forests.

China is the largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world. Over the past decades, China has made great efforts to retard the carbon emission growth. This paper aims to quantify the driving forces of stagewise provincial carbon emission changes and expound the bottom-up provincial efforts aligned with China’s carbon abatement targets. During 2007–2012, economic growth as the major contributing factor posed a great increase in provincial carbon emissions, especially in underdeveloped provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Ningxia. During 2012–2017, the energy intensity effect replaced economic growth as the largest contributor to provincial carbon emission changes. In both two periods, industrial structure upgrading and renewable energy expansion are conducive to mitigate provincial carbon growth, and the power sector will continue to contribute to national decarbonization. Lastly, this paper provides insight into national and provincial carbon emission abatement.

The $\alpha$-$z$ R\'enyi relative entropies are a two-parameter family of R\'enyi relative entropies that are quantum generalizations of the classical $\alpha$-R\'enyi relative entropies. In \cite{zhang20CFL} we decided the full range of $(\alpha,z)$ for which the Data Processing Inequality (DPI) is valid. In this paper we give algebraic conditions for the equality in DPI. For the full range of parameters $(\alpha,z)$, we give necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. For most parameters we give equivalent conditions. This generalizes and strengthens the results of Leditzky, Rouz{\'e} and Datta in \cite{LRD17DPI}., Comment: minor changes

Arabidopsis thaliana TRY is a negative regulator of trichome differentiation that promotes root hair differentiation. Here, we established that LbTRY, from the recretohalophyte Limonium bicolor, is a typical MYB transcription factor that exhibits transcriptional activation activity and locates in nucleus. By in situ hybridization in L. bicolor, LbTRY may be specifically positioned in salt gland of the expanded leaves. LbTRY expression was the highest in mature leaves and lowest under NaCl treatment. For functional assessment, we heterologously expressed LbTRY in wild-type and try29760 mutant Arabidopsis plants. Epidermal differentiation was remarkably affected in the transgenic wild-type line, as was increased root hair development. Complementation of try29760 with LbTRY under both 35S and LbTRY specific promoter restored the wild-type phenotype. qRT-PCR analysis suggested that AtGL3 and AtZFP5 promote root hair cell fate in lines heterologously producing LbTRY. In addition, four genes (AtRHD6, AtRSL1, AtLRL2, and AtLRL3) involved in root hair initiation and elongation were upregulated in the transgenic lines. Furthermore, LbTRY specifically increased the salt sensitivity of the transgenic lines. The transgenic and complementation lines showed poor germination rates and reduced root lengths, whereas the mutant unexpectedly fared the best under a range of NaCl treatments. Under salt stress, the transgenic seedlings accumulated more MDA and Na+ and less proline and soluble sugar than try29760. Thus, when heterologously expressed in Arabidopsis, LbTRY participates in hair development, similar to other MYB proteins, and specifically reduces salt tolerance by increasing ion accumulation and reducing osmolytes. The expression of salt-tolerance marker genes (SOS1, SOS2, SOS3 and P5CS1) was significant reduced in the transgenic lines. More will be carried by downregulating expression of TRY homologs in crops to improve salt tolerance.

Tebuconazole is a widely used fungicide that may impair soil health. Presently, limited information is available on the bioremediation of tebuconazole-contaminated soil using biochar as a carrier for bacteria. In this study, we firstly isolated a tebuconazole-degrading strain and identified it as Alcaligenes faecalis WZ-2. Then, we used wheat straw-derived biochar as carrier to capture strain WZ-2 to assemble microorganism-immobilized composite. Finally, we investigated the effects of strain WZ-2 and biochar-immobilized WZ-2 on tebuconazole biodegradation, microbial enzyme activities and community composition in the contaminated soil. Results showed that, as compared to control, the strain WZ-2 and biochar-immobilized WZ-2 accelerated the degradation of tebuconazole, while reducing the half-life of tebuconazole from 40.8 to 18.7 and 13.3 days in soil, respectively. However, biochar alone than control slightly retarded the degradation of tebuconazole in soil. Though tebuconazole (10 mg/kg) negatively affected the soil enzyme activities (urease, dehydrogenase, and invertase) and microbiome community structure, the biochar-immobilized WZ-2 not only accelerated the degradation of tebuconazole but also restored native soil microbial enzyme activities and microbiome community composition. Our results suggest that a compatible combination of bacteria with biochar is an attractive and efficient approach for remediation of pesticide-contaminated soil and improvement of soil biological health.

In the spectrum measurement experiment, the roughness of the object surface is an essential factor that cannot be ignored. In this experiment, a group of mixed pixel samples with different mixing ratios were designed, and these samples were printed on four kinds of papers with different roughness. The spectral characteristics of mixed pixels with different roughness are quantitatively analyzed by using the measured spectral data. The linear spectral mixture model is used for spectral decomposition, and the effect of roughness on the unmixing precision of mixed pixels was studied. The surface roughness will affect the reflectivity of the mixed pixel. Specifically, the higher the roughness is, the higher the reflectivity of the sample is. This phenomenon is more noticeable when the proportion of white endmember (PWE) is large, and as the white area ratio decreases, the reflectance difference gradually decreases. When the surface roughness of the sample is less than 3.339 μm, the spectral decomposition is performed using a linear spectral mixing model in the visible light band. The average error of the unmixing is less than 0.53%, which is lower than the conventional standard spectral measurement error. In other words, when the surface roughness of the sample is controlled within a specific range, the effect of roughness on the unmixing accuracy of the mixed pixels is small, and this effect can be almost ignored. Multiple scattering within the pixels is the key to model selection and unmixing accuracy, when using the ASD FieldSpec3 spectrometer to perform spectral reflectance measurement and linear spectral unmixing experiments. If the surface roughness of the sample to be measured is less than the maximum wavelength of the spectrometer, the experimental results believe that the photon energy is mainly mirror reflection on the surface of the object and diffuse reflection. At this time, it is still a better choice to use a linear spectral mixing model to decompose the mixed pixels.

In this article we introduce a complete gradient estimate for symmetric quantum Markov semigroups on von Neumann algebras equipped with a normal faithful tracial state, which implies semi-convexity of the entropy with respect to the recently introduced noncommutative 2-Wasserstein distance. We show that this complete gradient estimate is stable under tensor products and free products and establish its validity for a number of examples. As an application we prove a complete modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality with optimal constant for Poisson-type semigroups on free group factors., Comment: 29 pages, some typos fixed, final version

A novel Pd-catalyzed desulfitative cross-coupling reaction of sodium arylsulfinates with hexaalkyl distannanes is realized, allowing the facile synthesis of functionalized arylstannanes with moderate to excellent yields. The successful implement of gram-scale synthesis and tandem Stille coupling reaction demonstrates the potential applications of this method in organic synthesis.

By virtue of the facile anion-exchange technique, smart BiOI/BiVO4 two-dimensional (2D) heteronanostructure (HNS) photocatalysts targeted for the degradation of organic pollutants have been developed by the in situ growth of BiVO4 on the scaffolds of BiOI nanoplates. The as-obtained BiOI/BiVO4 HNSs exhibited excellent 2D structure as templates of BiOI nanoplates and well structure stability due to the in situ growth pattern of BiVO4 on BiOI. The 2D HNSs exhibited superior photocatalytic activities, especially the V/I8 2D HNSs (V:I = 80%), exhibited the highest Rhodamine B (RhB) and salicylic acid (SA) degradation rates, which are 29.8 times (RhB) and 15.7 times (SA) those of the individual BiVO4 and 6.4 times (RhB) and 10 times (SA) those of BiOI, respectively. Such excellent photocatalytic activities should be attributed to the organic combination of the 2D structure and heterojunction, as verified by the detailed morphology and composition characterizations. The well-known unique advantages of 2D nanost...

The structure of kraft lignin is heterogeneous and the reaction activity is low due to the complicated and somewhat uncertain chemical reactions under the strong alkali and high temperature conditions of kraft pulping chemistry. At present, people still lack understanding of its structure, so it is difficult to be used as high quality industrial raw material for many years despite its huge output. In this paper, the phenolation potential of industrial Spruce Kraft Lignin (SKL) in phase separation system was explored. Compared with previous studies on phase separation reaction, due to the direct use of lignin as feedstock, sulfuric acid would only act as a phenolation catalyst, and is no longer used for swelling cell walls and hydrolyzing carbohydrates, so a modest reduction of acid concentration is feasible. In the phase separation system, the benzyl position of lignin was activated to selectively graft the p-cresol groups. Due to the protection of organic phase on lignin, the breakage of the β linkages and the condensation reaction of lignin were effectively prevented, so the original structure of lignin was well preserved. In order to capture the detailed structural changes of lignin after phenolation in phase separation system, FT-IR, GPC and quantitative NMR techniques (1H-NMR, 31P-NMR and 2D-NMR) were used to analyze the changes of main functional groups, linkages and substructures of industrial lignin samples before and after phenolation. The results showed that the industrial spruce kraft lignin still have many active sites which can be modified by phenolation. And through p-cresol treatment, a kind of high activity industrial lignin with more phenolic hydroxyl groups, more uniform molecular size and higher purity was obtained. Then the molecular structure models of spruce kraft lignin before and after phenolation is proposed respectively based on the molecular weights, quantitative analysis of functional groups, linkages, substructures and introduced p-cresols. This will be helpful to understand the structural changes of industrial spruce kraft lignin during phenolation in phase separation system, and provide guidance for the high value utilization of this high activity industrial lignin in the future.

A method based on the boiling of immersion agent inside the material to improve polysaccharide extraction efficiency called internal boiling method (IBE), is reported herein. It was compared with hot water extraction (HWE) and ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) using an extracted mathematical model. The mathematical model was based on Fick’s second law, and the employed variables were the temperature, ultrasonic power, and extraction time. The rate constant (κ), diffusion coefficient (Ds), relative raffinate ratio, and extraction t0.8 were analyzed. In the case of IBE, the extraction process reached its equilibrium concentration after approximately 20–30 min, thereby indicating a more rapid extraction compared with UAE (30–50 min) and HWE (120–180 min). In addition, the equilibrium concentration of IBE (0.484 mg/mL, 358.15 K) was significantly higher than those of the UAE (0.451 mg/mL, 300 W) and HWE (0.256 mg/mL, 358.15 K) processes. Furthermore, the ranges of κ and Ds were in the order of IBE > UAE > HWE at temperatures ≥348.15 K. These results indicated that IBE is a fast, efficient, and simple method for polysaccharide extraction.

A null-displacement thrust stand based on torsional pendulum configuration has been developed to characterize the steady-state microthrust for microspacecrafts. A pair of elastic transducers are applied to constrain the rotation of pendulum arm, so that the stand can maintain static with a small deflection under the loading thrust. The thrust can be obtained according to its linear relationship with the displacement difference with respect to the deflection, which can be detected by a laser displacement sensor. The thrust calibration is implemented via an electromagnetic coil collocated with a pair of permanent magnetic sheets. The repeatability, response time, position drift, noise, resolution and measuring range of the stand are analyzed. The stand features the resolution of 0.1 mN and the maximum available thrust of 2.7 N. Exhibiting the uncertainty less than 12.36%, both steady-state and throttleable thrusts produced by a laser-augmented combustion micromotor are characterized utilizing this stand.

A 1,10-phenanthroline ligated cobalt catalyst is reported for the ortho-C–H ethylation of aromatic, heteroaromatic, and alkenyl carboxamides with inexpensive triethylaluminum. This reaction represented the first example of cobalt-catalyzed monoselective direct ortho-C–H ethylation reaction with aluminum reagent as an alkyl donor.

We reported herein an iridium-photoredox-catalyzed decarboxylative conjugated addition of glyoxylic acid acetals with various Michael acceptors, including unsaturated amide, ester, aldehyde, ketone, and nitrile under irradiation. Vinyl pyridine and α-aryl styrene are also suitable substrates. The reaction offers various types of acetal products, which are of synthetic significance as protected aldehydes.

Uniform Co3O4–SnO2 nanoboxes have been synthesized successfully by a facile annealing treatment. Their hollow and cubic structure can be retained successfully during calcination. Due to their hollow structure and PN junction, these Co3O4–SnO2 nanobox sensors can detect H2S with high sensitivity at a low temperature of 180 °C. In addition, it was found that the Co3O4–SnO2 nanobox sensors obtained at a higher annealing temperature displayed a higher sensitivity and lower recovery time to H2S in a temperature range of 500 to 700 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to confirm that the changes in resistance and the high sensitivities of the sensors are significantly attributable to the transformation of Co3O4 to CoSx with high conductivity under an H2S atmosphere.

A ruthenium based photoredox catalyst in combination with a substoichiometric amount of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) efficiently catalyzed dual decarboxylative couplings between alkenyl carboxylic acids and N-(acyloxy)phthalimides derived from aliphatic carboxylic acids, delivering alkylated styrene derivatives in a high regio- and stereo-selective manner under mild reaction conditions. Various types of secondary, tertiary, and quaternary aliphatic carboxylic acids as well as α-amino acids can be used as suitable substrates. Mechanistic analysis suggested that the reaction proceeds through a radical mechanism mediated by a Ru(i)/Ru(ii) catalytic cycle with DABCO acting both as the base and the co-catalyst for single electron transfer.

Herein the first example of electrochemically enabled, NiCl2-catalyzed reductive decarboxylative coupling of N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHP) esters with quinoxalinones is reported. A range of primary, secondary, tertiary aliphatic carboxylic acids and amino acid-derived esters were tolerated well. This decarboxylative coupling allows access to structurally diverse 3-alkylated quinoxalinones in up to 91% yields.

The Arabidopsis thaliana WD40-repeat protein TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA1 (TTG1) controls epidermis development, playing opposite roles in trichome differentiation and root hair formation. We isolated and characterized LbTTG1 (encoding a WD40-repeat protein with high sequence similarity to TTG1) from the recretohalophyte Limonium bicolor, which actively excretes absorbed salt via a salt gland. The complete open reading frame of LbTTG1 was 1,095 bp, encoding a protein of 364 amino acids, and showed highest expression during the salt gland initiation stage. We heterologously expressed LbTTG1 in wild type and ttg1-13 Arabidopsis plants to verify the protein’s function, and the copies of LbTTG1 were identified in transgenic strains using southern blotting. Trichomes were extremely induced on the first true leaves of plants heterologously expressing LbTTG1, whereas no trichomes were produced by ttg1-13 plants. Conversely, plants heterologously expressing LbTTG1 produced fewer root hairs than ttg1-13 plants. In plants heterologously expressing LbTTG1 compared to controls, epidermis differentiation genes (GLABRA1 and GLABRA3) were up-regulated while genes encoding negative regulators of trichome development (TRIPTYCHON and CAPRICE) were down-regulated. Under increased NaCl concentrations, both of the transgenic lines showed enhanced germination and root length, and accumulated less malondialdehyde (MDA) and Na+ and produced more proline, soluble sugar, and higher glutathione S-transferase activity, compared with the ttg1-13 mutant. These results indicate that LbTTG1 participates in epidermis development in Arabidopsis, similarly to other WD40-repeat proteins, and specifically increases salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis by reducing ion accumulation and increasing osmolyte levels.

The synthesis process of the phenolic resin adhesive was developed in the 19th century, and its excellent environmental resistance and high bonding strength make it one of the main wood adhesives. With the development of industry, phenolic resin adhesive is not only used in plywood, wood processing and laminate, but also in automobile, aerospace, composite materials and other fields. Herein we review the main synthetic processes and latest research progress for phenolic resin adhesives, the capacity distribution of major domestic phenolic resin enterprises, analysis of domestic phenolic resin consumption, import and export volume and price, Chinese plywood production, and the main production and export markets. Furthermore, research and discussion on the commercial application of domestic phenolic resin adhesives in plywood were carried out, which provides a reference for development of better phenolic resin adhesives that meet the development needs of the country, along with quality and economic competitiveness.

The scope of this study is to analyze the carbon emissions intensity of electricity generation in “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) countries. The total CO2 emissions from electricity generation in BRI nations increases from 4232.34 Mt in 2013 to 4402.38 Mt in 2015, accounting for 34.45% of global CO2 emissions from electricity generation. Logarithmic mean Divisia index methodology is applied to analyze the drivers of carbon emissions intensity in BRI nations. The decomposition results revealed that the regional carbon emissions intensity in BRI nations increases during 2013–2015 and the power generation efficiency is the essential factor to improve carbon emissions performance in BRI developing countries. For BRI developing countries, promoting clean and efficient thermal power is a pragmatic priority for green power development.

A series of polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANF) functionalized with nitrogen-containing ligands were prepared and then used to synthesize fiber-supported Pd(0) nanoparticle catalysts. The phenanthroline-functionalized PANF with immobilized Pd(0) nanoparticles (PANPhenF-Pd(0)) had the best catalytic activity for the Heck reaction under solvent-free conditions. The PANPhenF-Pd(0) efficiently stabilized the nanoparticles and they were well-dispersed with Pd(0) particle sizes of about 3 nm. The PANPhenF-Pd(0) structure was further characterized by a variety of instrumental methods. A probable mechanism based on the fiber's microenvironment is proposed for the Heck reaction catalyzed by PANPhenF-Pd(0). The PANPhenF-Pd(0) catalyst is easily recovered from the reaction system and can be used up to six times with only a slight decrease in catalytic activity and with low Pd leaching. The PANPhenF-Pd(0) catalyst also has excellent catalytic activity for gram-scale use.

As a new concept of space propulsion system, laser-ablation propulsion has attracted more and more attention due to its characteristics of low power consumption, high specific impulse, variable and controllable thrust. With an aim to further raise up the movement velocity of plasma, we combine the laser with high-voltage electrostatic field to accelerate the Cu plasma induced by laser ablation. To demonstrate the acceleration characteristics of plasma under different electric field intensity, the plasma conductivity, plasma shockwave intensity and plasma plume movement process were tested using parallel electrode plate device, self-made torsion pendulum impulse test bench and high-speed ICCD camera. The results showed that the conductive current and impulse formed by the plasma obviously increased under the applied electric field. The images captured by high-speed ICCD camera showed the plasma cross-sectional area was 0.194 mm2 at 900 ns and 0.217 mm2 at 1600 ns when the electric field intensity was 0 V/mm. With the electric field intensity increased to 30 V/mm, the plasma cross-sectional area elevated to 0.280 mm2 at 900 ns and 0.288 mm2 at 1600 ns. The acquisitions prove that the idea of this paper is feasible and favorable, which provide a theoretical basis for the combination of laser ablation propulsion and electric field.

The AgI/Bi2MoO6/AgBi(MoO4)2 (ABM) multi-heterostructure nanosheet composite system for visible-light photocatalysis have been successfully constructed by a simple one-step calcination method. The ABM multi-heterostructure composite photocatalysts exhibited the obviously improved photocatalytic performance than the pristine Bi2MoO6, AgBi(MoO4)2, and AgI for the degradation of both Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and Rhodamine B (RhB). The apparent degradation rate for the ABM sample with the highest photocatalytic activity is 5.4 (TC) and 23.4 times (RhB) that of Bi2MoO6, 4.0 (TC) and 4.9 times (RhB) that of AgBi(MoO4)2, and 1.9 (TC) and 2.4 times (RhB) that of AgI, respectively. This ABM sample with the highest activity showed a Bi2MoO6/AgBi(MoO4)2 composite nanosheet morphology (lateral size: 1–5 u m, thickness: 90−130 nm) with a large amounts of small AgI nanocrystals (diameter: 2−25 nm) uniformly distributed on the surface of composite sheet. The outstanding performance of the ABM composite photocatalysts should be ascribed to the effective separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs via the multi-heterostructure in ABM, the enhanced visible-light absorption, as well as the two-dimensional (2D) morphology benefitting to the exposure of plenty of surface reactive sites and significant reduction of migration distances of photogenerated carriers. It is hoped that this facile method for the fabrication of multi-heterostructure in our work could promote and inspire the other multicomponent functional nanomaterials used in the fields of not only photocatalysis, but also solar cells, sensors, catalysis, and so on, in the future.

In this paper we study the joint convexity/concavity of the trace functions Ψ p , q , s ( A , B ) = Tr ( B q 2 K ⁎ A p K B q 2 ) s , p , q , s ∈ R , where A and B are positive definite matrices and K is any fixed invertible matrix. We will give full range of ( p , q , s ) ∈ R 3 for Ψ p , q , s to be jointly convex/concave for all K. As a consequence, we confirm a conjecture of Carlen, Frank and Lieb. In particular, we confirm a weaker conjecture of Audenaert and Datta and obtain the full range of ( α , z ) for α-z Renyi relative entropies to be monotone under completely positive trace preserving maps. We also give simpler proofs of many known results, including the concavity of Ψ p , 0 , 1 / p for 0 p 1 which was first proved by Epstein using complex analysis. The key is to reduce the problem to the joint convexity/concavity of the trace functions Ψ p , 1 − p , 1 ( A , B ) = Tr K ⁎ A p K B 1 − p , − 1 ≤ p ≤ 1 , using a variational method.

In this paper, our effort is focused on preparation and oxygen sensing of fluorescent silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) assembled in three kinds of mesoporous SBA-15 with different morphologies, including spherical mesoporous SBA-15 (SPSBA-15), long rod-like mesoporous SBA-15 (LRSBA-15) and hexagonal prism-like mesoporous SBA-15 (HPSBA-15). The relationship of structure and sensing properties in mesoporous materials is studied. Small angle powder X-ray diffraction (SAXRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Discrete-Fourier-Transform (DFT) analyses and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to characterize their structural properties. The obtained mesoporous SPSBA-15, LRSBA-15 and HPSBA-15 possess abundant Si–O–Si bands of the inorganic framework and high surface-volume ratios. Particularly, mesoporous HPSBA-15 materials exhibit the largest surface areas than other two mesoporous materials. Accordingly, the adding volume of Si NPs was 8 ml in mesoporous HPSBA-15. At the same time, the hybrid materials show the shortest response time of 2.2 s and recovery time of 11.2 s. This result can be attributed to the uniform and nearly parallel porous structure of the HPSBA-15 materials supporting with large surface areas and narrow pore size distributions. Therefore, the properties in oxygen sensing can be improved by using mesoporous SBA-15 materials with larger BET surface area.

The morphological changes of electrode materials influence their electrochemical performance. In this work, we synthesize cobalt oxide nanomaterial by a facile electrospinning-annealing process. During the pyrolysis step, the annealing temperature and holding time are used to control the morphology and properties of samples. Results demonstrate that the main component of cobalt oxide is Co3O4 and the morphology of Co3O4 changes from nanofibers to nanobelts (NB) with annealing temperature and time. The cyclic voltammogram (CV) curves are analyzed to compare the electrochemical performances of the electrodes. It reveals that the temperature has a greater impact on the specific capacitance of the electrode than the time. Among them, Co3O4-350-5 electrode presents the best capacitive properties in three-electrode system, which displays a high specific capacitance (335.5 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and excellent rate capability (58% capacitance retains at a high current density of 30 A g−1). The asymmetric device assembled by Co3O4-350-5 displays a long cycling life (87.6% capacitance remains after 3000 cycles) and a high power density (26.5 kW kg−1).

This study evaluated the effects of nano zero-valent iron (NZVI, 50 nm) on anaerobic digestion of high solids sludge (10 ± 0.5%). Compared to the blank group without NZVI, the group with NZVI at all levels (10, 20 and 30 mM) played a driving role in methane production. The maximal methane production was increased by 37.5% in the group of 30 mM NZVI. The dynamic changes of hydrogen content and VFAs showed that rapid hydrogen evolutional corrosion of NZVI made lower hydrogen partial pressure in the later stage, which was more conducive to conversion of propionic acid. The microscopic analysis indicated that NZVI could flocculate and adsorb on the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) around the anaerobic microorganisms, protecting most active microbial cell membrane from contact damage. On the other hand, some decaying microbial cells membrane could be destroyed by NZVI and intracellular substances would be released due to the reduction of EPS.

The effect of DA-6 treatments with different concentrations on the maturity and fruit quality of ‘Aikansui’ pear was studied. The results showed that the effect of treatment at 35 mg •L-1 was the best, followed by 30 mg •L-1. The treatment of 35 mg •L-1 could increase the sugar content of the fruit, reduce the content of titratable acid, and advance the maturity of the fruit to the greatest extent. The 30 mg •L-1 treatment had the most significant effect on the increase of fruit weight and the Vc content.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is showing its great influence and leadership on the international energy cooperation. Based on the three-stage DEA model, total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) in 35 BRI countries in 2015 was measured in this article. It shows that the three-stage DEA model could eliminate errors of environment variable and random, which made the result better than traditional DEA model. When environment variable errors and random errors were eliminated, the mean value of TFEE was declined. It demonstrated that TFEE of the whole sample group was overestimated because of external environment impacts and random errors. The TFEE indicators of high-income countries like South Korea, Singapore, Israel and Turkey are 1, which is in the efficiency frontier. The TFEE indicators of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Poland and China are over 0.8. And the indicators of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, South Africa and Bulgaria are in a low level. The potential of energy-saving and emissions reduction is great in countries with low TFEE indicators. Because of the gap in energy efficiency, it is necessary to distinguish different countries in the energy technology options, development planning and regulation in BRI countries.

In this paper we study two semigroups of completely positive unital self-adjoint maps on the von Neumann algebras of the free orthogonal quantum group $O_N^+$ and the free permutation quantum group $S_N^+$. We show that these semigroups satisfy ultracontractivity and hypercontractivity estimates. We also give results regarding spectral gap and logarithmic Sobolev inequalities., 19 pages

Photoacoustic (PA) spectral analysis (PASA) is a recently developed approach for quantifying molecular components and microscopic architectures in tissue. The PASA relies on signals with sufficient temporal length and narrow dynamic range for statistics based analysis. However, the optical and acoustic attenuation within the biological tissue make it difficult to acquire desirable signals from deep locations in biological tissue for PASA. This study proposes an interstitial PASA approach. By combining a fiber optics diffuser and a small aperture needle hydrophone, a fine needle PA probe facilitates PASA in deep tissue. A prototype probe has been fabricated and tested in quantifying the prostate cancer cell concentrations in vitro and lipid infiltrated hepatocyte in liver ex vivo. Experiment results show that the needle probe could potentially provide pathologic information of the tissues.

We developed a novel localized antivascular method, namely photo-mediated ultrasound therapy (PUT), by applying synchronized laser and ultrasound pulses. PUT relies on high optical contrast among biological tissues. Taking advantage of the high optical absorption of hemoglobin, PUT can selectively target microvessels without causing unwanted damages to the surrounding tissue. Moreover, PUT working at different optical wavelengths can selectively treat veins or arteries by utilizing the contrast in the optical spectra between deoxy- and oxy-hemoglobin. Through our experiments, we demonstrated that cavitation might have played a key role in PUT. The addition of a laser pulse to an existing ultrasound field can significantly improve the likelihood of inertial cavitation, which can induce microvessel damage through its mechanical effect. In comparison with conventional laser therapies, such as photothermolysis and photocoagulation, the laser energy level needed in PUT is significantly lower. When a nanosecond laser was used, our in vivo experiments showed that the needed laser fluence was in the range of 4 to 40 mJ/cm2.