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Achieving lead-free flexible materials with excellent γ-ray shielding as well as good mechanical properties are of significance to radiation protection safety and wear comfort of wearable articles. In this paper, polydopamine (PDA) is coated on Bi2O3 particles to form a typical core–shell structure Bi2O3@PDA, which is used to intensely bond bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) with chloroprene rubber (CR). It promotes the interface interaction between Bi2O3 and CR matrix, leading to the uniform dispersion of the filler and rich interfacial compatibility in CR/Bi2O3@PDA composite with as high as 50 wt% filling. Furthermore, 50 wt% CR/Bi2O3@PDA composite displays 53.6% shielding rate for 105 keV γ-rays. Meanwhile, its tensile strength and elongation at break are 9.6 MPa and 1424.8%, respectively, which are without sacrificing too much in comparison with the neat rubber. We propose a versatile route to prepare superior integrated properties of flexible materials, which can be used as wearable articles for radiation shielding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To understand and evaluate the current situation of health emergency personnel capacity building in Chongqing, clarify the main factors that affect and restrict this capacity building, and propose countermeasures and suggestions. This will provide a reference for further improving the capacities of health emergency response in Chongqing. Methods Questionnaire surveys and expert interviews were used to analyze the current situation of health emergency personnel capacity building in 39 disease control and prevention centers and 10 medical institutions in Chongqing from four dimensions: general status, health status, training and drilling status, and health emergency capability. Spearman's rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between self-evaluation of health status and self-evaluation of sleep quality, and multiple linear regression was employed to analyze the main factors influencing emergency response capability. Results Among Chongqing's health emergency personnel, 34.85% had a BMI of overweight or above, only 37.92% regularly conducted health monitoring, and 9.19% experienced health problems during emergencies. The proportions of personnel who participated in two or more training sessions per year, two or more drills per year, and one or more physical fitness evaluations per year were 52.07%, 22.76%, and 31.12%, respectively. The average score of emergency response capability of Chongqing's health emergency personnel was 76.11, with the lowest score in the policy advice capability (48.59). Personnel with a medical background (β=1.025), longer years of emergency response work (β=1.774), better self-evaluated physical condition (β=3.664), better self-evaluated mental condition (β=4.362), and participation in drillings twice or more per year (β=2.696) had higher scores in terms of health emergency response capability (P<0.05). Conclusions There are still some weaknesses in the capacity building of Chongqing's health emergency response personnel. Future efforts should focus on optimizing the staffing structure of the health emergency response team, strengthening the physical training of emergency personnel in normal times and health monitoring and management under emergency conditions, continuously promoting the actual, contextual, and professional emergency training and drilling, and comprehensively improving the physical and mental quality, professional quality, and emergency response capacity of health emergency personnel through multiple approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane adsorption is a critical assessment of the gas storage capacity (GSC) of shales with geological conditions. Although the related research of marine shales has been well-illustrated, the methane adsorption of marine-continental transitional (MCT) shales is still ambiguous. In this study, a method of combining experimental data with analytical models was used to investigate the methane adsorption characteristics and GSC of MCT shales collected from the Qinshui Basin, China. The Ono-Kondo model was used to fit the adsorption data to obtain the adsorption parameters. Subsequently, the geological model of GSC based on pore evolution was constructed using a representative shale sample with a total organic carbon (TOC) content of 1.71%, and the effects of reservoir pressure coefficient and water saturation on GSC were explored. In experimental results, compared to the composition of the MCT shale, the pore structure dominates the methane adsorption, and meanwhile, the maturity mainly governs the pore structure. Besides, maturity in the middle-eastern region of the Qinshui Basin shows a strong positive correlation with burial depth. The two parameters, micropore pore volume and non-micropore surface area, induce a good fit for the adsorption capacity data of the shale. In simulation results, the depth, pressure coefficient, and water saturation of the shale all affect the GSC. It demonstrates a promising shale gas potential of the MCT shale in a deeper block, especially with low water saturation. Specifically, the economic feasibility of shale gas could be a major consideration for the shale with a depth of <800 m and/or water saturation >60% in the Yushe-Wuxiang area. This study provides a valuable reference for the reservoir evaluation and favorable block search of MCT shale gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Seasonal late‐season water deficits negatively affect the yield and quality of sweet potatoes in northern China. However, the amount of late‐season irrigation to achieve high yield and consistent quality storage root remains undetermined. We assessed the yield and some qualitative traits of sweet potatoes such as size, shape, skin/flesh colour and nutritional content, as influenced by five irrigation levels (T0: unirrigated control; T1: 33% ETc; T2: 75% ETc; T3: 100% ETc; and T4: 125% ETc). RESULTS: Late‐season irrigation significantly increased yield and marketable yield. Yields for T2 and T3 were significantly higher than other treatments, whereas T2 had the highest Grade A rating in a 2‐year test. The vertical length of storage roots gradually increased with an increase in irrigation level, whereas the maximum width remained unchanged. The proportion of long elliptic and elliptic storage roots also increased, whereas the proportion of ovate, obovate and round storage roots gradually decreased. The skin and flesh colours became more vivid as the level of irrigation increased, with the skin colour becoming redder and the flesh colour becoming more orange–yellow. The levels of carotenoids, vitamin C and soluble sugar were significantly higher in irrigated crops, with the highest vitamin C and soluble sugar levels in T2 and the highest carotenoid levels in T3 treatment. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential of moderate irrigation in the late‐season to improve both yield production and quality potential. The results are of great importance for improving the market value of sweet potatoes and increasing grower profits. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the waste products have a variety of connection structure characteristics, the energy consumed in tool switching in the disassembly process is considered to better comprehensively optimise the energy consumption index. A mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model of multi-objective partial disassembly line balancing problem (PDLBP) is constructed to minimise four optimisation objectives which are the number of workstations, workstation load, number of the tools are switched, and energy consumption. Based on the characteristics of PDLBP, we constructed an energy consumption matrix of tool switching and proposed a multi-objective improved social spider algorithm (ISSA). The random movement and mask change operations of ISSA were improved, and the artificial spiders were added to enhance the global optimisation capabilities of ISSA. ISSA was applied to optimise two typical benchmark instances, which have different scales, respectively. And the computational results were compared with several algorithms of existing literature to verify the superiority of ISSA. Finally, ISSA was applied to a partial disassembly instance of a printer, which considered the energy consumed in tool switching. Then, multiple better disassembly schemes were provided for decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichoderma spp. are a group of widespread fungi with important applications in many aspects of human life, but they are also pathogens that cause green mold disease on mushrooms. During a survey of mushroom cultivation in Guizhou, China, five strains of Trichoderma from three different localities were isolated from soil in mushroom bags of Hymenopellis raphanipes. The typical morphology of having gregarious, reddish stromata and gregarious phialides and the results of phylogenetic analyses based on a combined dataset of RPB2, TEF, and ITS gene sequences demonstrated that these green-spored Trichoderma belong to a new taxon, Trichoderma hymenopellicola. Pathogenicity tests by covering fungal mycelial blocks or soil mixed with spore suspension in mushroom bags showed similar symptoms to those in the field, and the same fungal pathogen had been observed and re-isolated from these symptoms, which fulfill Koch’s postulates. A primary screening test of nine common fungicides indicated that prochloraz-manganese chloride complex and propiconazole are the top two effective fungicides inhibiting the pathogen, whereas the former was further indicated as a suitable fungicide to control Trichoderma hymenopellicola, with a high inhibition ratio to the pathogen and low toxicity to the mushroom.

The direct-ink-writing (DIW) has been widely used to print various functional devices using different self-leveling inks. Due to the complicated rheological behavior and multiple processing parameters, how to rapidly determine the crucial parameter for high-precision printing is still challenging. Here we adapt a widely used commercial silver paste and identify the critical parameter for dominating the flatness through observation of the microstructure evolution for the line-to-layer forming process. An analytical model for flatness with printing parameters was established. Using the proposed model, the printing process parameters for achieving high flatness can be directly determined, avoiding the high cost of extensive experimental exploration.