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The conventional energy-transition pathway, that is, reducing coal, increasing gas, and developing renewable energies, cannot fully satisfy the requirement of China for energy security under the new situation. Creating a novel dynamic carbon neutrality mode for coal-based energy systems is a forward-looking development approach to solving the problem of high carbon emissions and ensuring national energy security. This study summarizes the international energy transition modes and analyzes the urgency and importance of developing a low-carbon coal-based energy system in response to the challenges of energy security and emissions reduction. Moreover, it clarifies the scientific intension, establishes a system framework, and discloses the security guarantee and emissions reduction mechanisms of the dynamic carbon neutrality mode for coal-based energy systems. An effectiveness assessment model based on system dynamics is established to assess the effectiveness of the mode in terms of energy security, emission reduction,and social development. The results indicate that compared to the conventional coal-fueled systems, the coal-based energy system can potentially reduce carbon emissions by 46% to 55% and external dependence on oil and gas to be below 20% in 2060 under different scenarios; the carbon emissions can be reduced by 84% using the dynamic carbon neutrality mode and the carbon capture and storage technology, and is expected to be further lowered owing to the carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology and carbon sinks in mining areas. Coal-based energy development and application can serve as a strategic technology for oil and gas reserves, thereby ensuring energy security. However, China still faces a significant oil and gas gap before 2030, and thus the development of the coalbased energy is urgent. Furthermore, we propose that a novel coal-based energy system supported by dynamic carbon neutrality technologies should be built to achieve energy independence and security as well as achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Coal underground gasification, tar-rich coal utilization, and coalbed gas development technologies should be regarded as a potential technology portfolio in the short and medium term and the coal in-situ fluidization mining technology could be a long-term choice.

Covalent polymerization of organic molecules into crystalline one‐dimensional (1D) polymers is effective for achieving desired thermal, optical, and electrical properties, yet it remains a persistent synthetic challenge for their inherent tendency to adopt amorphous or semicrystalline phases. Here we report a strategy to synthesize crystalline 1D covalent organic frameworks (COFs) composing quasi‐conjugated chains with benzoxazine linkages via the one‐pot Mannich reaction. Through [4+2] and [2+2] type Mannich condensation reactions, we fabricated stoichiometric and sub‐stoichiometric 1D covalent polymeric chains, respectively, using doubly and singly linked benzoxazine rings. The validity of their crystal structures has been directly visualized through state‐of‐the‐art cryogenic low‐dose electron microscopy techniques. Post‐synthetic functionalizations of them with a chiral MacMillan catalyst produce crystalline organic photocatalysts that demonstrated excellent catalytic and recyclable performance in light‐driven asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes, affording up to 94 % enantiomeric excess [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral unmixing (HU) has been a vital technique in hyperspectral image processing. Over the past years, many algorithms have been developed based on the nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) framework. However, the conventional methods based on the NMF need prior information of the number of endmembers, which is usually estimated by a separate procedure. Therefore, the precision of estimating the number of endmembers will impact the subsequent unmixing effect. Thus, collaborating between the two processes is desired to avoid the propagation of errors. This paper proposes a new NMF-based method, which can estimate the number of endmembers and extract the endmembers and the abundance maps. Firstly, we introduce the weighted group sparsity regularization to adaptively eliminate the abundances corresponding to the redundant endmembers, while the abundances of the true endmembers are preserved. Then the number of endmembers can be determined by the reconstruction error function and the ${l_2}$ l 2 -norm of the abundance vectors. Secondly, since the simplex determined by the endmembers has the minimum volume among all simplexes that circumscribe the data points, we impose the total variational regularization to force the endmembers to be close to each other to minimize the simplex volume. And because the total variational regularization avoids the use of noisy pixels, it can decrease the influence of noise and improve the robustness of the solution. For the proposed model, we design an effective algorithm to solve it. Also, the experimental results based on the synthetic data and real data demonstrate that the proposed method can identify the endmembers number well and achieve robust unmixing results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have investigated the influence of green practices on consumer behavior in the last decades. However, findings indicate that consumers have different responses toward green practices. To advance the current literature, this study draws on the theoretical foundation of social identity theory to investigate the relationship between green practices and hotel guests' visit intention in the luxury hotel sector. The study also determines the mediating mechanisms of perceived value fit and promotion focus and the moderating mechanism of environmental behavior in this relationship. Sample data were collected from 473 hotel guests in China's luxury hotels. The results of structural equation modeling indicate that green hotel practices enhance visit intention and that perceived value fit and promotion focus positively mediate this relationship. Moreover, environmental behavior has a positive moderating effect on the link between green hotel practices and perceived value fit, as well as that between perceived value fit and visit intention. A robustness test with another sample data of 266 hotel guests confirms the hypothesis testing results. The findings of this study provide implications for researchers and business managers in understanding and managing the influence of green practices on hotel guests' behavior in the luxury hotel sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secoeudesma sesquiterpenes lactone A (SESLA) is a sesquiterpene derived from Inula japonica Thunb. and is known to possess many pharmacological properties, e.g. anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the immunomodulatory role of SESLA in gram-positive (G+) bacterial infection is not clear. To set up a G+ bacterial infection model in vitro, we carried out a bacterial mimic (PGN or Pam3CSK4) or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) stimulated experiment using macrophages or dendritic cells (DCs). ELISA and qPCR were performed to measure the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression of MHC II and co-stimulatory molecules on the surface of DCs. The network pharmacology was used to identify the molecular mechanism and potential targets of SESLA that are predicted to be involved in the MRSA-elicited inflammation. Western blot and dual luciferase reporter assay were adopted to certify possible molecular mechanism of SESLA. This study demonstrated that SESLA treatment significantly reduced the levels of inflammatory cytokines stimulated by PGN, Pam3CSK4 or even MRSA in vitro, and it also reduced PGN-induced expression of MHC II and co-stimulatory molecules on the surface of DCs. Mechanistically, the inhibition of IκBα phosphorylation and the suppression of T cells activation could account for its anti-inflammatory activity. The present study validated the notable anti-inflammatory activity of SESLA and discovered its previously uncharacterized immunoregulatory role and the underlying mechanism in G+ bacterial infections. Overall, SESLA has a potential to be an antibiotic adjuvant for the treatment of G+ bacterial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a significant menace to global health as it induces granulomatous lung lesions and systemic inflammatory responses during active tuberculosis (TB). Micheliolide (MCL), a sesquiterpene lactone, was recently reported to have a function of relieving LPS-induced inflammatory response, but the regulative role of MCL on the immunopathology of TB still remains unknown. In this experiment, we examined the inhibitory effect of MCL on Mtb-induced inflammatory response in mouse macrophage-like cell line Raw264.7 by downregulating the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and NLRP3 inflammasome. Evidences showed that MCL decreased the secretion of Mtb-induced inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and TNF-α) in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, MCL dramatically suppressed Mtb-induced activation of iNOS and COX2 as well as subsequent production of NO. Furthermore, MCL inhibited Mtb-induced phosphorylation of Akt (Ser 473) in Raw264.7. According to our results, MCL plays an important role in modulating Mtb-induced inflammatory response through PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway and subsequently downregulating the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. Therefore, MCL may represent as a potential drug candidate in the adjuvant treatment of TB by regulating host immune response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covalent polymerization of organic molecules into crystalline one-dimensional (1D) polymers is effective for achieving desired thermal, optical, and electrical properties, yet it remains a persistent synthetic challenge for their inherent tendency to adopt amorphous or semicrystalline phases. Here we report a strategy to synthesize crystalline 1D covalent organic frameworks (COFs) composing quasi-conjugated chains with benzoxazine linkages via the one-pot Mannich reaction. Through [4+2] and [2+2] type Mannich condensation reactions, we fabricated stoichiometric and sub-stoichiometric 1D covalent polymeric chains, respectively, using doubly and singly linked benzoxazine rings. The validity of their crystal structures has been directly visualized through state-of-the-art cryogenic low-dose electron microscopy techniques. Post-synthetic functionalizations of them with a chiral MacMillan catalyst produce crystalline organic photocatalysts that demonstrated excellent catalytic and recyclable performance in light-driven asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes, affording up to 94 % enantiomeric excess., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Biomass and its derivatives have broad applications in the fields of bio-catalysis, energy storage, environmental remediation. The structure and components of biomass, which are vital parameters affecting corresponding performances of derived products, need to be fully understood for further regulating the biomass and its derivatives. Herein, tobacco is taken as an example of biomass to introduce the typical characterization techniques in unraveling the structural information, chemical components, and properties of biomass and its derivatives. Firstly, the structural information, chemical components and application for biomass are summarized. Then the characterization techniques together with the resultant structural information and chemical components are introduced. Finally, to promote a wide and deep study in this field, the perspectives and challenges concerning structure and composition charaterization in biomass and its derivatives are put forward., Competing Interests: Authors KS, KJ, FP, BX, WZ, YS, XuG, SH, HaF, CX, and HuF were employed by China Tobacco Zhejiang Industrial Co. Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Shen, Xia, Jiao, Pan, Xiang, Zhou, Shou, Gao, Hu, Fang, Xia, Jiang, Gao, Li, Sun, Lu, Fan and Sun.)

Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive (G + ) bacterium that causes a wide range of diseases in humans and livestock. Therefore, the development of innovative and effective therapies is essential for the treatment of S. aureus -induced severe infections. Ephedrine hydrochloride (EH) is a compound derived from ephedrine and is widely used for the management of cardiovascular diseases and hypotension. The results of our previous studies demonstrated that EH has anti-inflammatory activity in macrophages and protects against endotoxic shock. However, whether EH regulates the function of dendritic cells (DCs) and the immune response in S. aureus -induced infection is unknown. In this study, the anti-inflammatory and regulatory activity of EH on DCs was evaluated. EH increased the production of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and decreased the production of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-12 in DCs stimulated with peptidoglycan (PGN), the main cell wall component in G + bacteria. The PI3K/Akt and p38 MAPK signaling pathways controlled EH-induced IL-10 expression and EH-inhibited TNF-α expression, respectively. The PGN-induced expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, CD86, and MHC class II molecule Iab was down-regulated in DCs by EH. Furthermore, EH protected the liver and kidney and increased the survival rate of mice with S. aureus -induced peritonitis. In conclusion, EH helps to keep immune homeostasis and alleviate organ damage during S. aureus -induced peritonitis. Therefore, EH may be a promising drug candidate in the treatment of S. aureus -induced severe infections and other invasive G + bacterial infections., Competing Interests: None.