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Heat treatment of wood is an attractive, environmentally friendly modification, which can change surface visual properties of wood including color and grain, but it is unclear how heat-treated wood is perceived and evaluated compared with untreated wood. In this paper, Chinese fir was heat-treated at 160, 180, 200, or 220 °C for 2 or 4 h. The changes of wood surface color and grain contrast were measured. A subjective questionnaire and eye-tracking technology were used for psychological evaluation. The results showed that changes in the visual properties of heat-treated wood had a significant effect on psychological preference—heat-treated wood was generally more preferred than the untreated, particularly at 200 °C for 4 h. Grain contrast and hue played an important role in the preference for heat-treated wood. The preference gave people the positive psychological impression of warmth, weight, cost, prevalence, and comfort. Eye-tracking analysis showed that Chinese fir heat-treated at about 200 °C with high hue value and clear grain contrast was easier to gain more visual attention. The results would have a high technical reference value for the heat-treated wood in product visual design.

The Proterozoic oil in Gaosheng area of the Western Depression of Liaohe Basin has great potential and is an important exploration field. However, the study about control factors of Gaosheng reservoir needs to be improved. The source rocks are characterized by using geochemical techniques and the structural evolution history is restored by using 2D-Move software. The characteristics of reservoirs and caps are clarified, and the controlling factors of reservoir formation are summarized. The oil generation intensity of Es4 and Es3 is generally 5 × 106–10 × 106 t/km2, indicating that the oil source is sufficient. The sandstone reservoir has fracture and dissolution porosity, which provide storage space for oil accumulation. Faults and unconformities provide pathways for oil migration. The dense Fangshenpao and Mesozoic basalt is a good cap layer to preserve the reservoir, which effectively prevents the upward migration of oil. According to the comprehensive analysis of main controlling factors, the favorable exploration areas are pointed out. The research results are of great significance to guide the future oil and gas exploration in Liaohe Basin.

The Shuguang area has great oil and gas potential in the Proterozoic and it is a major exploration target in the Western Depression. However, controlling factors and a reservoir-forming model of the Shuguang reservoir need further development. The characteristics of the reservoir formation in this area were discussed by means of a geochemical technique, and the controlling factors of the oil reservoir were summarized. The oil generation intensity of Es4 source rock was 25 × 106–500 × 106 t/km2, indicating that the source rocks could provide enough oil for the reservoir. The physical property of the quartz sandstone reservoir was improved by fractures and faults, which provided a good condition for the oil reservoir. Two periods of oil charging existed in the reservoir, with peaks of 38 Ma and 28 Ma, respectively. A continuous discharge of oil is favorable for oil accumulation. Oil could migrate through faults and fractures. In addition, the conditions of source–reservoir–cap assemblage in the Shuguang area well preserved the oil reservoir. The lower part of the Shuguang reservoir was source rock, the upper part was reservoir, and it was a structure-lithologic oil reservoir. These results are crucial for further oil exploration.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects more than 1.2 billion individuals globally. In addition to anemia, reactive thrombocytosis is also a common clinical hematological condition in patients with IDA. However, some case reports have described the thrombotic complications in association with IDA-induced thrombocytosis. Patients with a high risk of thrombosis need prompt identification and effective treatment to prevent thrombotic complications. While iron replacement treatment has been shown to decrease platelet count in this context, there is limited published evidence on how iron supplementation affects the thrombocytosis caused by IDA. We retrospectively examined the clinical records of 440 patients with IDA from an RCT completed from 1 January 2016, to 30 December 2017, and data obtained from this study was used for post hoc analysis to examine the effect of iron on platelet count in IDA-induced thrombocytosis. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) platelet counts of the 440 patients with IDA was 310.23 ± 98.72 × 109/L. With baseline platelet counts>450 × 109 /L as the cutoff for thrombocytosis, patients were divided into 2 groups: 36 (8.1%) in the IDA with thrombocytosis group (mean ± SD platelet count, 521.67 ± 73.85 × 109/L) and the remaining 404 in the IDA without thrombocytosis group (mean ± SD platelet count, 291.39 ± 76.11 × 109/L). Differences were found in baseline characteristics including white blood cell (WBC) count, hemoglobin (Hb) level, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), transferrin saturation (TSAT), serum iron (SI) level, and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) between the two groups (P

Abstract The factors that affect hypomethylating agents (HMAs) sensitivity in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are complex and multifaceted. They include DNA methylation, gene expression, mutation, etc. However, the underlying mechanisms are still not clearly illustrated. In the present work, ABAT gene expression was associated with HMAs sensitivity. It was found that ABAT gene interference increased the sensitivity of HL-60 and THP-1 cells to HMAs treatment, while ABAT overexpression decreased its sensitivity. RNA-sequencing analysis showed that ABAT knockdown activated both interferon I and interferon-gamma signaling while inhibiting the secondary metabolic synthesis and arginine metabolic process. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolic profiling also demonstrated that ABAT gene knockdown affected arginine, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, in addition to the biosynthesis of valine, leucine, and isoleucine, and the metabolism of beta-alanine. The ABAT gene expression downregulation could activate the CXCR4/mTOR signaling pathway, which was related to HMAs sensitivity. CXCR4 expression was regulated by mTOR activity and vice versa. In vivo, mice injected with ABAT gene knockdown cells lived longer than control mice after HMAs treatment. Overall, this study elucidates the novel regulatory mechanisms of HMAs sensitivity and provides a potential therapeutic target in MDS.

The nucleoside analogs decitabine (5-AZA-dC) and azacitidine (5-AZA) have been developed as targeted therapies to reverse DNA methylation in different cancer types, and they significantly improve the survival of patients who are not suitable for traditional intensive chemotherapies or other treatment regimens. However, approximately 50% of patients have a response to hypomethylating agents (HMAs), and many patients have no response originally or in the process of treatment. Even though new combination regimens have been tested to overcome the resistance to 5-AZA-dC or 5-AZA, only a small proportion of patients benefited from these strategies, and the outcome was very poor. However, the mechanisms of the resistance remain unknown. Some studies only partially described management after failure and the mechanisms of resistance. Herein, we will review the clinical and molecular signatures of the HMA response, alternative treatment after failure, and the causes of resistance in hematological malignancies.

In this study, wheat straw (WS) was successfully liquefied into phenol (Ph) in the presence of sulfuric and phosphoric acid at different Ph:WS ratios. The liquefied wheat straw (LWS) was mixed with the crosslinking agent hexamethylenetetramine and applied for manufacturing of activated carbon fiber precursors (ACFPs) via melt-spinning. The ACFPs were cured into a solution consisted of hydrochloric acid and formaldehyde. The morphological, thermal, and chemical properties of the ACFPs were investigated using microscopic, thermogravimetric, and spectroscopic analyses while the amount of the combined phenol (CPh) was determined via liquid chromatography. The results indicated that the type of the acid catalyst and Ph:WS ratio had a great impact on CPh and unliquefied residue. The sulfuric acid showed better performance due to its strong acidic characteristics. The results of the analyses depicted that the ACFPs obtained from sulfuric acid-based LWS resin had a more decent morphological texture, thermal resistance, and chemical structure.

Great progress has been made in the exploration of tight sandstone gas resources in Kuqa depression. Great progress has been made in Dibei structural belt, which proves the previously unproven favorable area for tight sandstone gas. The physical properties, controlling factors, and characteristics of tight sandstone from the Ahe (J1a) Formation in the Dibei gas reservoir are analyzed. The results show that the tight sandstone of the J1a Formation is mainly feldspar lithic sandstone, with low porosity (average 9.1%) and low permeability (average 0.09 mD). Compaction (average compaction rate 61.9%) reduces porosity more than cementation (average cementation rate 14.3%). Secondary dissolution pores (average thin section porosity is 3.4%) dominate. The homogenization temperature has two peaks; the first peak is 85–110 °C, and the other peak is 115–140 °C, indicating that oil and gas experienced two filling stages at 12 Ma and 4.5 Ma, respectively. Eodiagenesis, A substage of mesogenetic diagenesis, and B substage of mesogenetic diagenesis happened in the area. Tight sandstone is developed in the B substage of mesogenetic diagenesis. The main controlling factors of diagenesis are: strong dissolution and structural pore increase; oil and gas charging and overpressure. The reservoir forming mode of the Dibei gas reservoir is: crude oil filling in the Late Neogene (12 Ma); reservoir densification in the late deposition of Kangcun Formation (7 Ma), mature natural gas filling in the early deposition of Kuqa Formation (4.5 Ma), and gas reservoir formed after transformation and adjustment in the deposition period of Quaternary (2 Ma). According to this model, it is predicted that the favorable area of the Dibei gas reservoir is in the southeast of the Yinan 2 well. This study provides guidance for the study of tight sandstone gas in other areas of the Kuqa Depression.

Steam activation treatments were introduced in the preparation of activated carbon fiber from liquefied wood (LWACF), to enlarge its specific surface area and develop the pore size distribution. With increasing activation time, the average fiber diameter of LWACF decreased from 27.2 µm to 13.2 µm, while the specific surface area increased from 1025 to 2478 m2/g. Steam activation predominantly enhanced the development of microporosity, without significant pore widening. Prolonging the steam activation time exponentially increased the removal efficiency of Cu2+ at a constant adsorbent dose, as a result of an increase in the number of micropores and acidic-oxygenated groups. Moreover, for LWACF activated for 220 min at 800 °C, the removal efficiency of Cu2+ increased from 55.2% to 99.4%, when the porous carbon fiber dose went from 0.1 to 0.5 g/L. The synthesized LWACF was proven to be a highly efficient adsorbent for the treatment of Cu2+ ion-contaminated wastewater.

In this study, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared from liquefied wood by chemical activation with ZnCl2, with a particular focus on the effects of temperature and ZnCl2: liquefied wood-based fiber (LWF) ratio on yield, porous texture, and surface chemistry. The characterization and properties of these ACFs were investigated by nitrogen adsorption/desorption, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). When using a 6:1 impregnation ratio, the specific surface area (SBET) of the resultant ACFs was as high as 1423 m2/g. The effect of an increase in impregnation ratio on the porosity of ACFs was stronger than that of an increase in the activation temperature. However, the former had a weaker impact on the surface chemistry and structure. It was also found that the yields of ACFs obtained by ZnCl2 activation were higher than those obtained by physical activation. Besides, the prepared ACFs presented higher adsorption than other raw materials in the adsorption test, indicating that ACFs prepared from LWF by ZnCl2 activation could be used as an adsorbent for the adsorption of medium size organic compounds.

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared by steam activation of windmill palm (WP) (Trachycarpus fortunei) fibers in a nitrogen atmosphere at various temperatures in the 600 to 850 °C range, and their characteristics were investigated. The effects of temperature, in terms of porous texture and surface chemistry, were identified through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results showed that the ACFs prepared at relatively high temperatures presented more cracking, collapsed surfaces, and lower yields because of the violent reaction that occurred during the activation process. With increasing temperature, more micropores were generated, and then the number eventually declined because of the conversion of partial micropores into mesopores. The ACFs with the highest special surface area, 1320 m2/g, and total pore volume, 1.416 cm3/g, were obtained at the activation temperature of 850 °C. In addition, graphitic carbon, the main compound on the surface of ACFs, decreased. Conversely, the amount of functional groups containing C-O (except for C-OH) slightly increased with increasing activation temperatures. It was also found that the mesopore volume and methylene blue adsorption of ACFs were highly increased as the temperature increased from 600 to 850 °C. Accordingly, WP fibers are a promising precursor for ACF production.

To develop more valuable application, oil palm trunk was successfully converted into activated carbon fibers (ACFs). An effective process of chemical treatment with dilute sulfuric acid was conducted to improve the thermal stability of primary fibers for further heating treatment. Carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as activator to produce much porous structure with various pore diameter. The specific surface area (SBET) and total pore volume (Vtotal) of resultant ACFs showed increasing trend as rise of activation temperature and time. The ACFs obtained under the temperature of 900 °C and time of 90 min exhibited highest SBET and Vtotal, which were more than 1800 m2/g and 0.7 mL/g, respectively. Meanwhile, more graphic carbon on the surface of ACFs were destroyed with prolonging activation time, resulting in the oxygen-containing functional groups formed during activation process with CO2. Due to the abundant pores and surface functional groups, the ACFs exhibited excellent adsorption capacity of chromium and would be an alternative material for industrial adsorption utilization.

Liquefied wood based as-cured precursors and carbon fibers prepared by different chemical curing processes were carried out to investigate the effects of curing temperature and time on the thermostability and microstructure of liquefied wood based precursors, the tensile strength of carbon fibers as well. The primary fibers can be converted into precursors with high performance by directly heating at target curing temperature. With the temperature and duration increasing, the numbers of methylene bonds in precursors increased, resulting in the enhancement of cross-linkages among molecular chains and then the improvement of thermostability of precursors. Carbon fibers prepared from as-cured precursors (curing temperature 95 oC, curing time 3h) had the minimum value of the average interlayer spacing (d002), it also showed the highest tensile strength, almost 800 MPa, which can be classified as fibers of general grade.

To acquire activated carbon fiber from phenol-liquefied wood (PLWACF) with better developed pore structure and a high proportion of mesoporosity, the porosity evolution of PLWACF activated at temperatures from 850 to 950 °C by water steam was detected by the physical adsorption of N2 at -196 °C. Results showed that the pore structure was well developed by prolonging the activation time at 850 to 910 °C, and it was easy to obtain PLWACF having exceptionally high surface area (larger than 2560 m2 g-1). However, PLWACF with a specific surface area larger than 3000 m2 g-1 could only be obtained in the late activation stages from 850 to 880 °C. Using this activation process, the mesoporosity was remarkably developed. The mesopore proportion drastically increased with an increase in activation temperature or time, reaching a maximum of 49.5%. The pore size distribution widened as the activation time increased and appeared to accelerate with the use of a higher activation temperature. The mesopore size distribution was enlarged from 2.8 to 5.8 nm.

Activated carbon fiber is known as an excellent adsorbent material due to its well-developed pore structure. In this work, the porosity evolution of activated carbon fiber prepared from phenol liquefied wood with water steam activation at 650 to 800 °C for 20 to 260 min was examined by physical adsorption of N2 at -196 °C. By the series of activation processes, the specific surface area and pore volume were increased with the increase of activation time, most significantly by activation at 750 °C for 20 to 180 min and by activation at 800 °C for 20 to 260 min. The microporosity was gently and progressively developed with increasing activation time at 650 to 700 °C, while it was sharply developed at the early stage of activations at 750 to 800 °C, and then tended to almost stabilize. The mesoporosity was well developed only by activation at 800 °C for longer than 100 min. The pore size distributions were principally ultramicropores (0.5 - 0.7 nm) during activations at 650 to 700 °C. By activations at 750 to 800 °C, the supermicropores (0.7 to 2.0 nm) as well as mesopores (2 to 4 nm) became progressively more important as the activation time was increased.

Pterocarpus santalinus and Pterocarpus tincorius are commonly used traded timber species of the genus Pterocarpus. P. santalinus has been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). As a non-CITES species, P. tincorius is also indiscriminately labeled as P. santalinus due to the similar macroscopic and microscopic features with P. santalinus. In order to understand the molecular discrimination between these easily confused species, xylarium heartwoods of these two species were extracted by three different kinds of solvents and analyzed using gas chromatography⁻mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Multivariate analyses were also applied for the selection of marker compounds that are distinctive between P. santalinus and P. tincorius. A total of twenty volatile compounds were detected and tentatively identified in three kinds of extracts, and these compounds included alcohols, stilbenoids, esters, aromatic hydrocarbons, ketones, miscellaneous, phenols, and flavonoids. GC-MS analyses also revealed that extraction solvents including ethanol and water (EW), ethyl acetate (EA), and benzene⁻ethanol (BE) gave the best chemotaxonomical discrimination in the chemical components and relative contents of the two Pterocarpus species. After chemometric analyses, EW displayed higher predictive accuracy (100%) than those of EA extract (83.33%) and BE extract (83.33%). Furthermore, spathulenol (17.58 min) and pterostilbene (23.65 min) were elucidated as the critical compounds for the separation of the EW extracts of P. santalinus and P. tinctorius. Thus, a protocol of GC-MS and multivariate analyses was developed to use for successfully distinguishing P. santalinus from P. tinctorius.

Activated carbon fibers were prepared from liquefied wood through stream activation. The effects of activation temperature and time on the microstructure and surface functional groups of the liquefied wood activated carbon fibers (LWACFs) were studied using analysis of burning behavior, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and SEM. The results showed that the burn-off value of the LWACFs increased gradually with the increase in temperature or time. All the LWACFs were far from being structurally graphitized, and in general, as temperature or time increased, the degree of graphitization and thickness of crystal structure increased. In addition, the LWACFs possessed rich micropores, and their specific surface area, pore volume, micropore size, and mesopore quantity were directly related to the activation temperature or time. The maximum specific surface area was found to be 2641 m2/g. The fractal dimension values of all samples were close to 3, indicating that their surfaces were very rough. Furthermore, with an increase in temperature or time, the elemental content of carbon increased, while that of oxygen decreased. Meanwhile, as the temperature or time increased, the relative content of graphitic carbon decreased, whereas that of carbon bonded to oxygen-containing functions increased. The surface of samples prepared at higher temperature or with longer time formed a considerable amount of holes.

This study considers the fractal characteristics of differentiated xylem cells of the fast-growing Populus×euramericana cv. ‘74 /76’ during the active phase by the method of differential box-counting fractal dimension. The fractal characteristics of differentiated xylem cells as well as the relationship between fractal dimension and tissues proportion were considered. Results showed that the fractal dimensions of cross sections were larger than those of tangential sections. Fractal dimension of cross sections had a remarkable negative correlation with the ratio of vessel element, significant positive correlations with the proportion of wood fiber and the proportion of parenchyma. The correlation of fractal dimension with wood fiber proportion was more significant than that with parenchyma proportion. The results were also verified by replacement of the tissues in the cross section. It was observed that fractal characteristics of the wood microstructure were very much related to the proportions of different tissues of the xylem cells.

Wood is a hygroscopic material and its mechanical properties change with moisture content below the fiber saturation point. Fracture characteristic is one of most important mechanical properties of wood and often is taken as an important safety design factor for wood as an engineered structural material. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of moisture content changes on wood fracture properties, focusing on fracture behavior and patterns with different crack orientations of Betula platyphylla Suk. and Pinus bungeana in two different desorption processes. These two desorption processes were, respectively, from fiber saturation point to an equilibrium moisture content corresponding to 82.4 %RH at 20°C and from 82.4 %RH to 35.2 %RH at the same temperature of 20 °C

Wood is a hygroscopic material and its mechanical properties change with moisture content below the fiber saturation point. Fracture characteristic is one of most important mechanical properties of wood and often is taken as an important safety design factor for wood as an engineered structural material. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of moisture content changes on wood fracture properties, focusing on fracture behavior and patterns with different crack orientations of Betula platyphylla Suk. and Pinus bungeana in two different desorption processes. These two desorption processes were, respectively, from fiber saturation point to an equilibrium moisture content corresponding to 82.4%RH at 20ºC and from 82.4%RH to 35.2%RH at the same temperature of 20ºC.

Activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were successfully prepared from softwood lignin, which was isolated with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400) as a solvolysis reagent, by water steam activation. The pore characterization and adsorption property of ACFs were investigated. The results showed that all the ACFs with more micropores exhibited high specific surface area and total pore volume which increased with the activation time prolonging; the highest ones were around 3100 m2/g and 1.5 mL/g, respectively. The specific surface area and total pore volume were much larger than those of other types of lignin-based ACFs and activated charcoal. Besides, with increasing activation time, the amount of graphitic carbon, which was the main compound on the surface of ACFs, decreased, while the amount of functional groups containing C–O slightly increased. In addition, the adsorption capacity of ACFs for methylene blue was highly increased as the activation time increased. Accordingly, lignin isolated with PEG is a promising precursor for ACF production.

Soda lignin does not have thermal flowing characteristics and it is impossible for it to be further thermally molded. To achieve the fusibility of soda lignin for fiber preparation by melt-spinning, an effective method for soda lignin modification was conducted by cooking it with polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 at various ratios. The higher the ratio of PEG that was used, the more PEG molecular chains were grafted at the alpha carbon of the soda lignin through ether bonds, resulting in lower thermal transition temperatures and more excellent fusibility. The modified soda lignin with a weight ratio of lignin to PEG of 1:4 exhibited a relative thermal stability of molten viscosity at selected temperatures. Thereafter, the resultant fusible soda lignin was successfully melt-spun into filaments with an average diameter of 33 ± 5 μm, which is smaller than that of some industrial lignins. Accordingly, it is possible to utilize soda lignin to produce fibrous carbonaceous materials.

Highly microporous bio-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared through a simple reactivation method. Sawdust, as the starting material, was liquefied and melt-spun to produce the precursor fibers. Then, the precursor fibers were activated by KOH and reactivated by steam. By varying the conditions of the two activation processes, the formation mechanism of the pore structure was studied, and the result showed that steam reactivation has a positive effect on the development of microporosity. The sample with the optimal condition exhibited the highest specific surface area of 2578 m2·g−1 as well as the largest pore volume of 1.425 cm3·g−1, where micropores contributed 70.3%. Due to its excellent texture properties, the ACF exhibited a high adsorption capacity of 1934 mg/g for iodine.