Search

The superior lithium storage performance of commercially available Cu2S under ultra-low temperature (−60 °C) is uncovered. The detailed reaction mechanism and mechanistic understanding of the excellent low-temperature performances are proposed.

The smoking ban is not working in some entertainment venues in China. PM2.5 pollution induced by cigarette smoking in these places is still unknown. In this study, we took mahjong clubs as target places, monitored the real-time PM2.5 concentration, and recorded on-site inspection information to investigate the PM2.5 pollution characteristics induced by cigarette smoking. In occupied and smoking rooms, the geomean and median values of PM2.5 concentration were 276 and 347 μg/m3. The number of smoking persons in room is the dominant factor to enhance PM2.5 levels. For each additional person smoking in the room, PM2.5 increased by 32% (95% CI: 31%, 33%). Regarding adjacent nonsmoking rooms, PM2.5 increased due to the air penetration from smoking rooms and the increase trend usually had a lag time of 20 minutes. The geomean values of PM2.5 concentrations were 109 μg/m3 in the nonsmoking and occupied rooms and 148 μg/m3 in the vacant rooms. To close the door of the room is the most effective measure to alleviate the PM2.5 penetration. The geomean values of 24-hour and annual average excess exposure concentration if spending 5 hours/day and 2 days/week in mahjong club were 32.1 and 9.2 μg/m3, respectively; both exceeded the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, 15 and 5 μg/m3, respectively. Our results revealed severe PM2.5 pollution and exposure risk by cigarette smoking in entertainment venues, as well as the penetration effect on adjacent nonsmoking areas. The smoking bans should be strictly enforced in entertainment venues, and the setting of smoking areas in indoor public places should be scientific to avoid diffusion into nonsmoking areas.

Amines are important for new particle formation and subsequent growth in the atmosphere. Consequently, the processes involved are receiving more attention in recent years. Here, we conduct a field observation in order to investigate the atmospheric particulate amines at a background site in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) during the summer of 2018. Four amines in PM2.5, i.e., methylamine (MA), dimethylamine (DMA), diethylamine (DEA), and trimethylamine (TMA), were collected, twice daily and analyzed. During the campaign, our measurements found the concentrations of MA, DMA, DEA, and TMA of 15.0 ± 15.0, 6.3 ± 6.9, 20.4 ± 30.1, and 4.0 ± 5.9 ng m−3, respectively, and the four amines correlated well with each other. The concentration of amines appear to be independent of whether they were collected during the day or night. Both MA and DMA exhibited a bimodal size distribution that had peaks at 0.67 and 1.1 µm, suggesting amines preferably distribute on submicron particles. Boundary layer height (BLH), relative humidity, and pH of aerosols were found have a negative relationship with amines, while aerosol liquid water content (ALWC) was found to have a positive relationship with amines. The PMF (positive matrix factorization) source apportionment results showed that the main source of amines in Chongming Island was of anthropogenic origin such as industrial and biomass emission, followed by marine sources including sea salt and marine biogenic sources. Given that the YRD region is still suffering from complex atmospheric pollution and that the knowledge on aerosol amines is still limited, more field studies are in urgent need for a better understanding of the pollution characteristics of amines.

Background Household air pollution (HAP) from residential combustion considerably affects human health in rural China. Large-scale population migration and rural lifestyle changes during the Spring Festival are supposed to change the household air pollution and health risks; however, limited field study has determined its impacts on HAP and short-term health outcomes. Methods A field study was conducted in rural areas of Southern China before and during the Spring Festival to explore the associations between HAP and blood pressure considering different factors such as cooking fuel, heating fuel, and smoking. Stationary real-time PM2.5 monitors were used to measure PM2.5 concentrations of the kitchen, living room, and yard of 156 randomly selected households. Personal exposure to PM2.5 was calculated based on the results of stationary samplers and corresponding time local residents spent in different microenvironments, and one adult resident was recruited of each family for the blood pressure measurement. Results Both personal exposure to PM2.5 and blood pressures of local residents increased during Spring Festival compared to the days before the holiday. Based on generalized linear model coupled with dominance analysis approach, it was found that personal PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with the factors of population size and the types of cooking and heating fuels with the relative contributions of approximately 82%, and systolic blood pressure (SBP, 100-120 mmHg as normal range for adults) was positively and significantly associated with personal PM2.5 exposures with the relative contribution of 11%. Conclusion The findings in this study demonstrated that Spring Festival can give rise to increase of HAP and hypertension risks, also related to tremendous solid fuel use, suggesting further policy making on promoting cleaner energy in rural areas and more attention on large population migration during national holidays.

It was well recognized that the pollutant emissions from real-world residential coal combustion contributed significantly to air pollution and human health, resulting in an urgent need for a better understanding of the pollutant emission factors (EFs) of residential coal combustion. However, field-based researches on residential coal combustion emissions are still limited at this stage. In this study, based on carbon balance method, emission factors (EFs) of CO2 and a series of pollutants, including gaseous pollutants (CO, NOX, CH4, and SO2), particulate matters (PM2.5 and PM10), elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from residential honeycomb briquette (HB) and coal chunk (CC) combustions were measured in real-world cooking stoves. As a result, apart from SO2, the burning of HB produced much less pollutants than CC. The median of emission reduction ratios estimated from Monte Carlo simulation ranged from 2.4% (SO2) to 98.8% (EC) by replacing CC with HB in residential combustion in Shanxi province in 2012. EFs of CO, PM2.5 and PAHs derived from the present field measurement were around 1–50 times higher than those from laboratory tests; furthermore, larger variations were found in our field measurement compared to that in the laboratory studies. This result called for more field measurements to reduce uncertainties of emission inventory estimations. As for the PAH emissions, particle phase PAHs dominated in both HB and CC burning and PAH emissions from HB burning had lower toxicity than CC combustion. Hence, HB is an ideal substituted fuel compared with CC. Previous studies suggested that PAH isomer ratios of FLA/(FLA+PYR) and IcdP/(IcdP+BghiP) above 0.5 represented source of coal combustion, which did not fit with our study well, indicating PAH isomer ratios might not be valid enough for source apportionment.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce antimicrobial substances that could potentially inhibit the growth of pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) concentrations show high variations in different microenvironments indoors, which has considerable impact on risk management. However, the real-time variations of PM2.5 exposure associated with per activity/microenvironment and intra-variation among family members remain undefined. In this study, real-time monitors were used to collect real-time PM2.5 data in different microenvironments in 32 households in urban community of China. Peak concentrations of PM2.5 were found in kitchen. The parallel levels of PM2.5 household indoor and outdoor indicated the benefit of clean energies use. To validly assess the health risk of individuals, we proposed a novel method to estimate the real-time exposure of all residents and firstly investigate the intra-variation of PM2.5 exposure among family members. The member who is responsible for cooking in the family had the maximum PM2.5 exposure. The ratios among intraindividual variations demonstrated children usually had lower exposure compared to the adults as they stayed more time in lower polluted microenvironments such as living room and bedroom. The exposure intensity in living room was above 1.0 for most residents, indicating it is warranted to alleviate the air pollution in living room. This study firstly focused on the intra differences of PM2.5 exposure among family members and provided a new insight for indoor air pollution management. The results suggested when adopting measures to reduce exposure, the microenvironments pattern of each member should be taken into consideration. Future work is welcomed to move another big step on this issue to protect the human health.

Fine particulate matter (PM

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) derivatives such as oxygenated PAHs (oPAHs) and nitrated PAHs (nPAHs), are receiving raising concerns due to their high toxic potential. Incomplete solid fuel combustion can release large quantities of PAHs derivatives, especially in low-efficiency domestic stoves. In this study, field measurements were conducted in rural Chinese homes to determine emissions of nPAHs and oPAHs from solid fuel combustion. A total of 12 fuel-stove combinations including cooking and space heating activities were investigated. Emission factors (EFs) of total nPAHs and oPAHs were in the range of 1.0-682.1 μg/kg and 0.01-131.7 mg/kg, respectively, with arithmetic means and stand deviations of 53.5 ± 72.5 μg/kg and 13.9 ± 24.4 mg/kg, respectively. The EFs of nPAHs and oPAHs for coal combustion (including honeycomb briquette, coal chunk, and peat tested in this study) were 30.2 ± 28.1 μg/kg and 1.5 ± 2.9 mg/kg, respectively, much lower than that for biomass burning (p0.05). The combustion phase could significantly affect the PAHs derivative emissions with higher emissions at initial phase than that at stable phase. Fuel type was found to affect the EFs, composition profiles, and ratios of PAHs derivatives to parent PAHs. This study tries to have an insight of PAHs derivative emissions from various solid fuel combustion, which would be useful in understanding the atmospheric PAHs derivative pollutions in China.

Humans generally spend most of their time indoors, and fine particulate matter (PM

Quantification of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) is a requirement of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and essential to evaluate and understand their environmental fate and associated health risks. Unfortunately, works estimating the emission of PCDD/Fs in China are limited, especially in terms of historical trends and information on spatial distribution. In this study, provincial emissions of 17 toxic PCDD/Fs congeners from 79 sources were quantified from 1960 to 2014, and 0.1o × 0.1o gridded emissions for 2014 were obtained by applying a source-specific, annually varying emission factor (EF) dataset with similar time trends as measurements for China. Historical national PCDD/F emissions showed an increasing trend until around 1980, and then plateaued due to decreased emissions from cement production and waste burning. Decreased emissions from cement production and waste burning in northeast, east, and south China, and Taiwan province were the main causes for the stabilized national emissions after 1980. Spatially, highly positive correlations of emission densities with population and GDP densities were identified, but no clear temporal patterns were observed. Emission densities showed a decreasing trend in the order of cities, towns and rural areas, while the opposite was seen for per capita emissions.

China has been famous for its porcelains for millennia, and the combustion processes of porcelain production emit substantial amounts of air pollutants, which have not been well understood. This study provided firsthand data of air pollutant emissions from biomass porcelain kilns. The emission factor of PM2.5 was 0.95 ± 1.23 g/kg during the entire combustion cycle, lower than that of biomass burning in residential stoves and coal burning in brick kilns, attributed to the removal effects of the long-distance transport in dragon kilns. The temporal trend of particle pollutants, including particulate matters (PMs) and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (low at ignition phase and high at the end) again indicated the removal effects of the special structure, while gaseous pollutants, such as gaseous PAHs, exhibited the opposite result. The GWC100 was estimated as 1.4 × 106 and 0.5 × 106 kg CO2e/yr for the scenarios in which 50% and 100% of the wood was renewable, respectively. The GWC100 of dragon kilns is nearly equal to that of 745 households using wood-fueled stoves. These results indicate the necessity of pollution controls for biomass porcelain kilns to estimate the emission inventory and climate change.

In clinical cancer treatment, the combination therapy as new therapeutic strategy has attracted more concerns to feature stronger anticancer efficacy and fewer side effects. Herein, a kind of cationic nanoplatform was fabricated to co-deliver gene and photosensitizer based on the supramolecular interaction between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP), in which cationic poly (L-lysine) as genes delivery was modified by β-cyclodextrin (β-CD-PLL) and PEGylated TPP was used as water soluble photosensitizer (TPP-PEG). The structures of β-CD-PLL and TPP-PEG were characterized by 1H NMR. The host-guest recognition between β-CD-PLL and TPP-PEG was verified by DLS and TEM. In vitro data indicated that this platform showed high DNA transfection efficiency and photodynamic effect for the combination of genetic and photodynamic therapy.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation on transport has been improved to control the aerosol transmission. We utilized portable monitors to measure real-time concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, PM1.0 and black carbon (BC) on six modes of transport and estimate personal exposures under the epidemic prevention. The mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, PM1.0 and BC measured on transport were 18.8 ± 19.4, 16.6 ± 16.5, 12.2 ± 10.8 and 4.1 ± 6.9 μg/m3, respectively. It reduced PM levels on subway to apply the full fresh air mode rather than partial recirculation mode. Airplane had the lowest concentrations and the highest decay rates, implying the most efficient ventilation and filtration. PM were higher on intra-city transport than inter-city, and significantly increased on arrival at stations. BC and BC/PM ratios were higher on road transport than rail transport, indicating the contribution of exhaust emissions. The ventilation mode to exchange air with the outside and the positive association between concentrations and decay rates on high-speed train suggested filtration efficiency should be improved simultaneously with enhancing ventilation. Wearing facemasks on transport further protects passengers against PM exposure, which reduced personal exposure concentrations on four modes of transport lower than 10 μg/m3, the World Health Organization guideline.

Evidence about the adverse effects of methamphetamine (METH) on invertebrates is scarce. Hence, C. elegans, a representative invertebrate model, was exposed to METH at environmental levels to estimate chronic and transgenerational toxicity. The results of chronic exposure were integrated into an underlying toxicity framework of METH in invertebrates (e.g., benthos) at environmentally relevant concentrations. The induction of cellular oxidative damage-induced apoptosis and fluctuation of ecologically important traits (i.e., feeding and locomotion) might be attributed by the activation of the longevity regulating pathway regulated by DAF-16/FOXO, and detoxification by CYP family enzymes. The adverse effects to the organism level included impaired viability and decreased fecundity. The results from transgenerational exposure elucidated the cumulative METH-induced damage in invertebrates. Finally, a new risk assessment method named toxicity indicator sensitivity distribution (TISD) analysis was proposed by combining multiple toxicity indicator test data (ECx) to derive the hazardous concentration for 10% indicators (C10) of one species. The risk quotient (RQ) values calculated by measured environmental concentrations and C10 in southern China, southeastern Australia, and the western US crossed the alarm line (RQ = 5), suggesting a need for long-term monitoring.

Household air pollution (HAP) from residential combustion considerably affects human health in rural China. Large-scale population migration and rural lifestyle changes during the Spring Festival are supposed to change the household air pollution and health risks; however, limited field study has determined its impacts on HAP and short-term health outcomes.A field study was conducted in rural areas of Southern China before and during the Spring Festival to explore the associations between HAP and blood pressure considering different factors such as cooking fuel, heating fuel, and smoking. Stationary real-time PMBoth personal exposure to PMThe findings in this study demonstrated that Spring Festival can give rise to increase of HAP and hypertension risks, also related to tremendous solid fuel use, suggesting further policy making on promoting cleaner energy in rural areas and more attention on large population migration during national holidays.

Residential solid fuel combustion is a major emission source of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in most developing countries, including China; however, accurate estimates of PAH emissions are often challenged by limited real-world emission factors (EFs) under field conditions, which can hardly be repeated in laboratory-controlled tests. In this study, a series of field measurements was conducted to determine the emissions of 28 PAHs from different fuel-stove combinations. A total of 14 fuel-stove combinations were studied. The total EFs of 28 PAHs (EFPAH28), on the basis of fuel mass, ranged from 20.7 to 535 mg/kg, with relatively lower EFs for coal than for biomass. Biomass burning in gasifier stoves had lower PAH EFs and fewer toxic PAH species than biomass burning in traditional brick stoves. Fuel type was a significant factor affecting PAH emissions, while stove difference had a relatively smaller influence. Much higher EFs were found from these field tests than from the idealized laboratory tests, which indicated significant underestimation in inventories based on the laboratory-based EFs. Biomass and coal had different profiles, with larger intra-fuel variations in coal than those in biomass. Highly variable values of some, though not all, commonly used isomer ratios indicated substantial biases in source apportionment relying on single or simple ratios without correction, and the MCE was found to be significantly corrected with some ratios.

Based on the Labajin Bridge, this paper uses Midas civil finite element software to establish a calculation model for the high-dose continuous rigid frame bridge with qualified CFST stack. Taking the height of the pier, the slope of the laced pier and the steel content of the column and limb as the design parameters, the calculation model of 40 different periods is constructed, and the high-dose continuous rigid frame bridge with qualified concrete-filled steel tube stacks under the rare earthquake The elastic and elastoplastic time-history analysis is carried out. By comparing the displacement and bending moment time-history curves of the control section, it is found that the vibration modes of the two different analysis methods are more consistent. Based on this, the seismic simplification method of the bridge is studied. Using the statistical induction method, the relationship between the control section displacement, the bending moment adjustment coefficient and the structural period is obtained by fitting, and the equivalent elastic method is proposed. The algorithm is verified by different seismic waves, fortification intensity and acceleration peak. The results show that the proposed equivalent elastic method agrees well with the elastoplastic method. The research results can effectively improve the computational efficiency of seismic design, and also provide reference and reference for the seismic design specifications of such structural systems.

To enhance anticancer efficacy and decrease side effects, the synergistic multi-agent therapy has now increasingly gotten great attention. Herein, the flexible polycaprolactone had been modified by histidine and formed assembles with PEGylated metallo-porphyrin via metal-coordinated supramolecular interaction. This supramolecular assembles showed excellent acid sensitivity. At neutral environment, the hydrophobic anticancer drug could be effectively co-encapsulated with photosensitizer Fe-TPP to improve the water solubility. While at the intracellular microenvironment, the changed acid environment would trigger the drug and Fe-TPP release due to the reduction of metal-coordinated interaction between histidine and metallo-porphyrin leading to the disintegration of assembles. The in vivo anticancer experiments toward HeLa and MCF-7 cells disclosed that this co-delivery system of anticancer drug and photosensitizer showed enhanced anticancer efficacy, implying that the synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy could improve cellular proliferation inhibition. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 2955-2962, 2018.

In this work, we presented a kind of intelligent supramolecular hydrogels (SHGs) based on base-pairing interaction between guanine and cytosine, comprising α-cyclodextrin, thioketals-modified guanine (G-TK-G) and cytosine-terminated PEG (C-PEG-C). The hydrogen bond of nucleic acid between G and C as an additional cross-linker effectively enhanced storage moduli (G′s) of the hydrogels. Notably, the obtained hydrogels exhibited excellent reactive oxygen species (ROS) responsive property due to the introduction of thioketals group. Under ROS-rich environment, the hydrogels could control the release of loaded-cargoes, outlining the potential of intelligent materials for biomedical application, such as smart drug delivery for anticancer.

Exposure to household air pollution (HAP) from solid fuel use (SFU) causes millions of premature deaths globally. Direct leakage from stoves into indoor air is believed to be the main cause of severe HAP. However, previous laboratory-based measurements reported leakage of minimal fractions from wood fuel combustion. Using a newly developed measurement method, on-site measurements were conducted to quantitatively evaluate the leakage of gases and particulate matter from different fuel-stove combinations. The fraction of indoor leakage to the total emission (F) of the measured air pollutants varied from 23 ± 11% to 40 ± 16% for different pollutants and fuel-stove combinations, and these were significantly higher than previously lab-based results. Fuel differences overwhelmed stove differences in influencing F values, with higher values from biomass burning than from coal combustion. The particles had higher F values than gases. Fugitive emission rates (ERs) were log-normally distributed, and biomass burning had higher ERs than coal burning. Indoor PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) and CO (carbon monoxide) concentrations measured during the burning period increased by nearly 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to concentrations before or after burning, confirming substantially high indoor leakage from fuel combustion in cookstoves. High fugitive emissions in indoor cookstoves quantified from the present on-site measurements effectively explain the high HAP levels observed in rural SFU households, and call for interventions to improve indoor air quality.

Due to the molecular complexity of many diseases, combination therapy is becoming increasingly important for a better long-term prognosis and to decrease side effects. In this presented work, a kind of AB2 Y-shape supramolecular micelles based on the metal-coordinated interaction between histidine and iron-tetraphenylporphyrins (Fe-TPP) had been successfully prepared which exhibited excellent acid-responsivity in acidic aqueous solution (pH

The semiconductor manufacturing roadmap which generally follows Moore’s law requires smaller and smaller EPE (Edge Placement Error), and this places stricter requirements on OPC model accuracy, which is mainly limited by metrology errors, pattern coverage and model form. Current metrology errors are mainly related to SEM image noise and measurement difficulty in complex 2D patterns. And traditional model form improvement by adding empirical terms for PEB (Post Exposure Bake), NTD (Negative Tone Development) and PRS (Physical Resist Shrinkage) effects still cannot meet the accuracy spec because other physical and chemical effects are uncaptured. Fitting these effects also requires comprehensive pattern coverage during model calibration. Solely improving model form may overfit the metrology error, which is risky, while solely improving metrology ignores existing model errors: both factors are troublesome for OPC. In this paper, a new metrology (MXP, naming for Metrology of Extreme Performance) and deep learning (Newron, naming for a Deep Convolutional Neural Network model form) integrated solution is proposed, where MXP decreases the metrology errors and provides good pattern coverage with high-volume reliable CD and EP (Edge Placement) gauges, and Newron captures remaining complex physical and chemical effects embedded in high-volume gauges beyond the traditional model. This solution shows overall ~30% prediction accuracy improvement compared to baseline metrology and FEM+ (Focus Exposure Matrix) model flow in N14 NTD process, predicts SEM shape of critical weak points more accurately.

Indoor biomass burning produces large amounts of small particles and hazardous contaminants leading to severe air pollution and potentially high health risks associated with inhalation exposure. Personal samplers provide more accurate estimates of inhalation exposure. In this study, inhalation exposure to size-segregated particles and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for the biomass user was studied by deploying personal samplers. The study found that daily PM2.5 inhalation exposure level was as high as 121 ± 96 μg/m3, and over 84% was finer PM1.0. For PAHs, the exposure level was 113 ± 188 ng/m3, with over 77% in PM1.0. High molecular weight PAHs with larger toxic potentials enriched in smaller particles resulting in much high risks associated with PAHs inhalation exposure. Indoor exposure contributed to ~80% of the total inhalation exposure as a result of high indoor air pollution and longer residence spent indoor. The highest exposure risk was found for the male smoker who conducted cooking activities at home.