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Abstract This study analyzes the characteristics of near-surface atmospheric CO2 concentrations on the southern slope of Tomur Peak from 2013 to 2022. Utilizing the Boughton two-parameter algorithm, we determined the CO2 background and non-background concentrations. Additionally, the Hysplit model was employed to investigate the potential contributing areas of the CO2 non-background concentration. Our findings that the CO2 concentration in the study area was approximately 17% lower than the global average, with an annual growth rate that was only about 47% of the global rate. The CO2 non-background concentration accounted for only 6.25% of the observed concentration, but was largely unaffected by near-ground meteorological factors. The source of the CO2 non-background was mainly controlled by the westerly belt, with potential source area mainly located in Central Asia. However, the WPSCF values in the modern ice and snow distribution area south of Tomur Peak and west of the monitoring station were significantly elevated, suggesting a strong wind transport of CO2 after accumulation under the influence of the elevated terrain. The local supplying path accounted for only 12.87%, indicating that human activities in the oasis areas of the Tarim Basin had a limited influence on the study area. Due to the blocking effect of the Baikal high-pressure system and the towering topography of the Tianshan Mountains, the influence of human emissions from higher latitudes was likely negligible.

Grid resolution and assimilation window size play significant roles in storm surge models. In the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea, the influence of grid resolution and assimilation window size on simulating storm surge levels was investigated during Typhoon 7203. In order to employ a more realistic wind stress drag coefficient that varies with time and space, we corrected the storm surge model using the spatial distribution of the wind stress drag coefficient, which was inverted using the data assimilation method based on the linear expression Cd = (a + b × U10) × 10−3. Initially, two grid resolutions of 5′ × 5′ and 10′ × 10′ were applied to the numerical storm surge model and adjoint assimilation model. It was found that the influence of different grid resolutions on the numerical model is almost negligible. But in the adjoint assimilation model, the root mean square (RMS) errors between the simulated and observed storm surge levels under 5′ × 5′ and 10′ × 10′ grid resolutions were 11.6 cm and 15.6 cm, and the average PCC and WSS values for 10 tidal stations changed from 89% and 92% in E3 to 93% and 96% in E4, respectively. The results indicate that the finer grid resolution can yield a closer consistency between the simulation and observations. Subsequently, the effects of assimilation window sizes of 6 h, 3 h, 2 h, and 1 h on simulated storm surge levels were evaluated in an adjoint assimilation model with a 5′ × 5′ grid resolution. The results show that the average RMS errors were 11.6 cm, 10.6 cm, 9.6 cm, and 9.3 cm under four assimilation window sizes. In particular, the RMS errors for the assimilation window sizes of 1 h and 6 h at RuShan station were 3.9 cm and 10.2 cm, a reduction of 61.76%. The PCC and WSS values from RuShan station in E4 and E7 separately showed significant increases, from 85% to 98% and from 92% to 99%. These results demonstrate that when the assimilation window size is smaller, the simulated storm surge level is closer to the observation. Further, the results show that the simulated storm surge levels are closer to the observation when using the wind stress drag coefficient with a finer grid resolution and smaller temporal resolution.

Nonmetallic ionic liquids (ILs) exhibit unique advantages in catalyzing poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) glycolysis, but usually require longer reaction times. We found that exposure to UV radiation can accelerate the glycolysis reaction and significantly reduce the reaction time. In this work, we synthesized five nonmetallic dibasic ILs, and their glycolysis catalytic activity was investigated. 1,8-diazabicyclo [5,4,0] undec-7-ene imidazole ([HDBU]Im) exhibited better catalytic performance. Meanwhile, UV radiation is used as a reinforcement method to improve the PET glycolysis efficiency. Under optimal conditions (5 g PET, 20 g ethylene glycol (EG), 0.25 g [HDBU]Im, 10,000 µW·cm−2 UV radiation reacted for 90 min at 185 °C), the PET conversion and BHET yield were 100% and 88.9%, respectively. Based on the UV-visible spectrum, it was found that UV radiation can activate the C=O in PET. Hence, the incorporation of UV radiation can considerably diminish the activation energy of the reaction, shortening the reaction time of PET degradation. Finally, a possible reaction mechanism of [HDBU]Im-catalyzed PET glycolysis under UV radiation was proposed.

Elizabethkingia anophelis is an emerging species and has increasingly been reported to cause life-threatening infections and even outbreaks in humans. Nevertheless, there is little data regarding the E. anophelis geographical distribution, phylogenetic structure, and transmission across the globe, especially in Asia. We utilize whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data to define a global population framework, phylogenetic structure, geographical distribution, and transmission evaluation of E. anophelis pathogens. The geographical distribution diagram revealed the emerging pathogenic bacteria already distributed in various countries worldwide, especially in the USA and China. Strikingly, phylogenetic analysis showed a part of our China original E. anophelis shared the same ancestor with the USA outbreak strain, which implies the possibility of localized outbreaks and global spread. These closer related strains also contained ICEEaI, which might insert into a disrupted DNA repair mutY gene and made the strain more liable to mutation and outbreak infection. BEAST analysis showed that the most recent common ancestor for ICEEaI E. anophelis was dated twelve years ago, and China might be the most likely recent source of this bacteria. Our study sheds light on the potential possibility of E. anophelis causing the large-scale outbreak and rapid global dissemination. Continued genomic surveillance of the dynamics of E. anophelis populations will generate further knowledge for optimizing future prevent global outbreak infections.

To evaluate the early changes in ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness and macular microvasculature in Posner-Schlossman syndrome (PSS) with a binocular control study involving optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Twenty-six patients with unilateral PSS were included in this cross-sectional study. All subjects underwent a thorough ocular examination. Macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (mGCIPL) and superficial macular microvasculature measurements, including vessel density (VD), perfusion density (PD) and the foveal avascular zone (FAZ), were recorded. In PSS-affected eyes, the mGCIPL thickness was significantly lower in all quadrants than in the contralateral eyes (all p 0.05). In addition, a decreased wiVD and wiPD were significantly correlated with a smaller mGCIPL thickness and a decreased MD (all p

Few surges on the Central Tibetan Plateau have been reported. Here, we report observations of a recent surging event of the Gangjiaquba Glacier in the Geladandong Peak region using surface velocity and morphology changes that were extracted from Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+/OLI images obtained from 1973 to 2019. The results reveal that the active surge of this glacier initiated at the end of summer in 2014 and terminated in 2016. The surge resulted in a total advance of 500 ± 11.2 m and many fresh crevasses in the surging zone. The maximum velocity was 1100 m a−1 during the active surge phase, which is much smaller than those observed in Karakoram but similar to observations in West Kunlun.

Abstract Background Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play central roles in the initiation of innate immune response, and also control adaptive immunity activation. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate the regulation of TLR activation to CD8+ T cells has not been fully elucidated in gastric cancer (GC). Materials and methods Thirty-two GC patients and twenty-three healthy controls were enrolled. Expression profile of TLRs in peripheral and tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells was investigated. Purified CD8+ T cells were stimulated with Pam3Csk4, an agonist of TLR2, and cytotoxic and co-inhibitory molecules in CD8+ T cells was measured. Direct and indirect contact coculture system between CD8+ T cells and AGS cells was set up. Modulation of TLR2 activation to CD8+ T cells was assessed by measuring lactate dehydrogenase release and cytokine secretion. Results TLR2 mRNA and TLR2+ cell percentage was down-regulated in GC derived peripheral and tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells. CD8+ T cells from GC patients showed exhausted phenotype, which presented as decreased perforin/granzyme B, increased programmed death-1, and reduced cytotoxicity to AGS cells. TLR2 activation by Pam3Csk4 enhanced perforin and granzyme B expression in CD8+ T cells, however, did not affect either proinflammatory cytokine production or co-inhibitory molecules expression. Pam3Csk4 stimulation enhanced cytolytic activation of peripheral and tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells from GC, but not those from healthy individuals. Conclusion The present data revealed an important immunomodulatory activity of TLR2 to CD8+ T cells in GC patients.

The mechanism of improving the anaerobic fermentation performance of waste active sludge by using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma pretreatment technology was investigated. The maximum accumulation of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) was observed on the 7th day of anaerobic fermentation when the DBD power was 76.50 W, which was 1726.70 mg COD/L, 1.50 times of the control group. The ratio of acetic acid in DBD group was 9.30% higher than that in the control. Further mechanism research indicated that DBD pretreatment can destroy the structure of extracellular polymer substances and release organic substances such as protein and polysaccharide. The dissolved organic matter analysis indicated that the DBD technique could increase the release of biodegradable organics (eg., tyrosine proteins, soluble microbial by-products), thus accelerate the biotransformation of organic substance. Bacterial community structure analysis showed that the increase in the abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes and the decrease in the abundance of Proteobacteria in DBD group were beneficial to the accumulation of SCFAs. Besides, further archaeal analysis indicated that the decrease of Methanosaeta sp. and Methanosarcina sp. abundance in the DBD group facilitate acetic acid accumulation. This study demonstrated that the DBD technique can be used as an effective and potential pretreatment method to improve sludge anaerobic fermentation performance.

Influenced by the Indian monsoon, the Kangri Karpo Mountains (KKM) of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau is the most humid part of the plateau, and one of the most important regions with numerous monsoon temperate glaciers. Glacier mass balance estimates have been strongly negative in the KKM over recent decades, but the spatiotemporal characteristics of surface velocity are poorly understood. Using phase-correlation feature tracking on Landsat images, this study estimates spatiotemporal variabilities of monsoon temperate glaciers for the period of 1988–2019. Results show that a significant slowdown was observed below an elevation of 4900 m, while an accelerated ice flow was found at an elevation of 4900–5800 m over the past 30 years. The trend of slowdown was −0.1 m a−1 dec−1 during 1988–2000, and then it increased to −0.5 m a−1 dec−1 during 2001–2019.

It is very difficult to directly spin the lignocellulose without pretreatment. Ionic liquids (ILs) are promising solvent to dissolve lignocellulose to prepare cellulose fiber. However, the degree of cellulose polymerization（DP）is reduced when lignocellulose is dissolved in ILs, and the lignin removal rate is low. The elongation at break and tensile strength of the fibers obtained by spinning the lignocellulose dissolved in ILs are poor. In this paper, preparing cellulose fiber directly from lignocellulose based on dissolving corn stalk via [C4mim]Cl-L-arginine binary system is achieved. It shows that the removal rate of lignin can reach 92.35% and the purity of cellulose can reach 85.32% after corn stalk was dissolved at 150 °C for 11.5 h when the mass fraction of arginine is 2.5%. The elongation at break of fiber reached 10.12% and the tensile strength reached 420 MPa. It is mainly due to the fact that L-arginine not only inhibits the degradation of cellulose but also promotes the delignination. Without any pulping or pretreatment, preparing cellulose fibers via direct dissolution and extrusion may provide a simple and effective way to prepare many novel cellulose materials.

In the storm surge model, the wind drag coefficient Cd is a critical parameter that has a great influence on the forecast of the storm surge level. In the present study, the effect of various wind drag coefficient parameterizations on the storm surge level is investigated in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea for Typhoons 7203 and 7303. Firstly, the impacts of initial values of a and b in the linear expression Cd = (a + b × U10) × 10−3 on the pure storm surge model are evaluated based on the data assimilation method. Results indicate that when a and b (i.e., the wind drag coefficients given by Smith, Wu, Geernaert et al. and Mel et al.) are non-zeros, the performance of the model has little difference, and the result from Wu is slightly better. However, they are superior to the performance of the model adopting zero initial values. Then, we discuss the influences of diverse ways of calculating wind drag coefficients, which are inverted by data assimilation method (including both linear and constant Cd) and given in the form of linear formulas, on simulating pure storm surge level. They show that the data assimilation-based coefficients greatly exceed those of the ordinary coefficient formulas. Moreover, the wind drag coefficient in the linear form is a little better than that in constant form when the data assimilation method is used. Finally, the assessment of the impact of astronomical tides on the storm surge level is conducted, and the simulation demonstrates that the storm surge model, which has the combination of four constituents (M2, S2, K1, O1) and wind drag coefficient inverted by the data assimilation method with the linear Cd, exhibits the best performance.

This paper introduces a simple but powerful segmentation algorithm for 3D meshes. Our algorithm consists of two stages: over-segmentation and region fusion. In the first stage, adaptive space partition is applied to perform over-segmentation, which is very efficient. In the second stage, we define a new intra-region difference, inter-region difference, and fusion condition with the help of various shape features and propose an iterative region fusion method. As the region fusion process is feature aware, our algorithm can deal with complex 3D meshes robustly. Massive qualitative and quantitative experiments also validate the advantages of the proposed algorithm.

ABSTRACT The dynamics of quasispecies afford RNA viruses a great fitness on cell tropism and host range. To study the quasispecies features and the intra-host evolution of SARS-CoV-2, we collected nine confirmed patients and sequenced the haplotypes of spike gene using a single-molecule real-time platform. Fourteen samples were extracted from sputum, nasopharyngeal swabs, or stool, which in total produced 283,655 high-quality circular consensus sequences. We observed a stable quasispecies structure that one master mutant (mean abundance ∼0.70), followed by numerous minor mutants (mean abundance ∼1.21 × 10−3). Under high selective pressure, minor mutants may obtain a fitness advantage and become the master ones. The later predominant substitution D614G existed in the minor mutants of more than one early patient. An epidemic variant had a possibility to be independently originated from multiple hosts. The mutant spectrums covered ∼85% amino acid variations of public genomes (GISAID; frequency ≥ 0.1) and likely provided an advantage mutation pool for the current/future epidemic variants. Notably, 32 of 35 collected antibody escape substitutions were preexistent in the early quasispecies. Virus populations in different tissues/organs revealed potentially independent replications. The quasispecies complexity of sputum samples was significantly lower than that of nasopharyngeal swabs (P = 0.02). Evolution analysis revealed that three continuous S2 domains (HR1, CH, and CD) had undergone a positive selection. Cell fusion-related domains may play a crucial role in adapting to the intrahost immune system. Our findings suggested that future epidemiologic investigations and clinical interventions should consider the quasispecies information that has missed by routine single consensus genome. IMPORTANCE RNA virus population in a host does not consist of a consensus single haplotype but rather an ensemble of related sequences termed quasispecies. The dynamics of quasispecies afford SARS-CoV-2 a great ability on genetic fitness during intrahost evolution. The process is likely achieved by changing the genetic characteristics of key functional genes, such as the spike glycoprotein. Previous studies have applied the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to evaluate the quasispecies of SARS-CoV-2, and results indicated a low genetic diversity of the spike gene. However, the NGS platform cannot directly obtain the full haplotypes without assembling, and it is also difficult to predict the extremely low-frequency variations. Therefore, we introduced a single-molecule real-time technology to directly obtain the haplotypes of the RNA population and further study the quasispecies features and intrahost evolution of the spike gene.

To obtain information on changes in glacier mass balance in the central Nyainqentanglha Range, a comprehensive study was carried out based on digital-elevation models derived from the 1968 topographic maps, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission DEM (2000) and TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X (2013). Glacier area changes between 1968 and 2016 were derived from topographic maps and Landsat OLI images. This showed the area contained 715 glaciers, with an area of 1713.42 ± 51.82 km2, in 2016. Ice cover has been shrinking by 0.68 ± 0.05% a−1 since 1968. The glacier area covered by debris accounted for 11.9% of the total and decreased in the SE–NW directions. Using digital elevation model differencing and differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry, a significant mass loss of 0.46 ± 0.10 m w.e. a−1 has been recorded since 1968; mass losses accelerated from 0.42 ± 0.20 m w.e. a−1 to 0.60 ± 0.20 m w.e. a−1 between 1968–2000 and 2000–2013, with thinning noticeably greater on the debris-covered ice than the clean ice. Surface-elevation changes can be influenced by ice cliffs, as well as debris cover and land- or lake-terminating glaciers. Changes showed spatial and temporal heterogeneity and a substantial correlation with climate warming and decreased precipitation.

In this study, we developed a double antibody sandwich chemiluminescent immunoassay (DAS-CLIA) based on phage-displayed nanobodies for the determination of Cry2A toxin. Nine phage-displayed nanobodies specifically to Cry2A were obtained from a naive nanobody library after four rounds of biopanning. The phage-displayed nanobody P2 with high affinity binding was selected as the detection antibody for the sensitive DAS-CLIA development. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity with a limit of detection of 0.09 ng/mL, has a wide linear range for Cry2A toxin detection, in the range of 0.1–1000 ng/mL and negligible cross-reactivities to the other Bt toxins. The recoveries of Cry2A toxin spiked in cereal samples (rice, wheat, and corn) ranged from 82.7% to 118%, with a coefficient of variation of less than 10%. This study demonstrated that the DAS-CLIA procedure based on phage-displayed nanobodies may provide an alternative sensitive method for the detection of Bt toxins in agri-products.

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system is a kind of green chemical-energy–electric-energy conversion equipment with broad application prospects. In order to ensure the long-term stable operation of the SOFC power-generation system, prediction and evaluation of the system’s operating state are required. The mechanism of the SOFC system has not been fully revealed, and data-driven single-step prediction is of little value for practical applications. The state-prediction problem can be regarded as a time series prediction problem. Therefore, an innovative deep learning model for SOFC system state prediction is proposed in this study. The model uses a two-layer LSTM network structure that supports multiple sequence feature inputs and flexible multi-step prediction outputs, which allows multi-step prediction of system states using SOFC system experimental data. Comparing the proposed model with the traditional ARIMA model and LSTM recursive prediction model, it is shown that the multi-step LSTM prediction model performs better than the ARIMA and LSTM recursive prediction models in terms of two evaluation criteria: root mean square error and mean absolute error. Thus, the proposed multi-step LSTM prediction model can effectively and accurately predict and evaluate the SOFC system’s state.

The independent point scheme (IPS) is applied to inverting initial condition with the adjoint method for the ocean pollutant transport model in this work. As an improvement, the linear Cressman interpolation is removed and the surface spline interpolation is implemented in the IPS. A series of numerical experiments are carried out to test and compare the improved IPS. And experiment results show that through applying the improved IPS, what is further reduced is mean absolute errors between simulation results and observations. Moreover, the inverted distributions are more smooth, accurate and reasonable. In addition, the application of improved IPS also reduces the variables that need to be inverted and promotes the computational efficiency. By these numerical experiment results, it is demonstrated that the combination of improved IPS and adjoint method can be used for the inversion of initial conditions and parameters estimation more effectively and reliably.

The wind stress drag coefficient plays an important role in storm surge models. This study reveals the influences of wind stress drag coefficients, which are given in form of formulas and inverted by the data assimilation method, on the storm surge levels in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea during Typhoon 7008. In the process of data assimilation, the drag coefficient is based on the linear expression Cd = (a + b × U10) × 10−3 (generally speaking, a and b are empirical parameters determined by observed data). The results showed that the performance of the data assimilation method was far superior to those of drag coefficient formulas. Additionally, the simulated storm surge levels obviously changed in the neighborhood of typhoon eye. Furthermore, the effect of initial values of a and b in the Cd expression on the storm surge levels was also investigated when employing the data assimilation method. The results indicated that the simulation of storm surge level was the closest to the observation when a and b were simultaneously equal to zero, whereas the simulations had slight differences when the initial values of a and b were separately equal to the drag coefficients from the work of Smith, Wu, and Geernaert et al.. Therefore, we should choose appropriate initial values for a and b by using the data assimilation method. As a whole, the data assimilation method is much better than drag coefficient parameterization formulas in the simulation of storm surges.

Cardiovascular diseases loom large in China and studies indicate an appropriate luminous environment helps to boost the emotions of cardiovascular patients. This study discusses emotional and visual influences of the luminous environment of Cardiac Intensive Care Units (CICU) on both patients and medical care personnel. We draw the following conclusions: 1) Illuminance level, color temperature, and lighting method all affect patient and nurse satisfaction. 2) Patients prefer low color temperature, while nurses prefer a higher one; however, factors such as illuminance, lighting method, and luminance distribution outweigh the influence of color temperature. 3) The major factors affecting patient satisfaction consist of the emotional and the visual factors in inverse correlation. 4) Nurse satisfaction correlates to the visual factor score. 5) The visual factor scores of subjects (patients and nurses) correlate positively to illuminance levels and average luminance. 6) In a specific range, the visual factor scores of subjects correlate positively to luminance contrast and UGR. 7) In a scenario characterized by an illuminance of 200 lx or an average luminance of 60 cd/m2, the trends of patients′ emotional factor and visual factor intersect, where the emotional factor peaks. 8) For the patients and nurses in CICU, their lighting demands varied due to different purposes. Patients needed to rest while nurses needed to see things clearly at work. In our opinion, the CICU Luminous Environment should be adapted to the needs of different major users (patients or nurses) with controlled parameters to achieve ideal performance. However, when illuminance and average luminance grow beyond the peak, the emotional factor will decrease.

In order to obtain the regularities of physicochemical properties of hydroxy protic ionic liquids (PILs) and broaden their potential application, a series of 2-hydroxyethylammonium sulfonate-based PILs were synthesized through proton transfer reaction and characterized by NMR and FT-IR and elemental analysis. Their phase transfer behavior (Tm) and initial decomposition point (Td) were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. Meanwhile, the regularities of density (ρ), viscosity (η) and electrical conductivity (σ) of synthesized PILs at different temperatures were measured. The results indicated that their physicochemical properties were tightly related with their structures and the interactions between cations and anions. In addition, the dissociation constants (pKa) of synthesized PILs were obtained by acid-base titration, which revealed that all synthesized PILs had pKa exceeding 7 and their cations were the crux of determining the pKa value. Moreover, several synthesized PILs with a low melting temperature also showed potential application in the deoxidation reaction of cyclohexanol, as they had conversion rates approximating 100% and the selectivity of cyclohexane or cyclohexene was about 80%.

Numerous studies have revealed that the sparse spatiotemporal distributions of ground-level PM2.5 measurements affect the accuracy of PM2.5 simulation, especially in large geographical regions. However, the high precision and stability of ground-level PM2.5 measurements make their role irreplaceable in PM2.5 simulations. This article applies a dynamically constrained interpolation methodology (DCIM) to evaluate sparse PM2.5 measurements captured at scattered monitoring sites for national-scale PM2.5 simulations and spatial distributions. The DCIM takes a PM2.5 transport model as a dynamic constraint and provides the characteristics of the spatiotemporal variations of key model parameters using the adjoint method to improve the accuracy of PM2.5 simulations. From the perspective of interpolation accuracy and effect, kriging interpolation and orthogonal polynomial fitting using Chebyshev basis functions (COPF), which have been proved to have high PM2.5 simulation accuracy, were adopted to make a comparative assessment of DCIM performance and accuracy. Results of the cross validation confirm the feasibility of the DCIM. A comparison between the final interpolated values and observations show that the DCIM is better for national-scale simulations than kriging or COPF. Furthermore, the DCIM presents smoother spatially interpolated distributions of the PM2.5 simulations with smaller simulation errors than the other two methods. Admittedly, the sparse PM2.5 measurements in a highly polluted region have a certain degree of influence on the interpolated distribution accuracy and rationality. To some extent, adding the right amount of observations can improve the effectiveness of the DCIM around existing monitoring sites. Compared with the kriging interpolation and COPF, the results show that the DCIM used in this study would be more helpful for providing reasonable information for monitoring PM2.5 pollution in China.

We investigate an internal surge of Karayaylak Glacier, which was reported by the media in May 2015. To differentiate the May 2015 glacier surge from other glacier advances, we surveyed changes in velocity, crevasses and glacier area using Landsat 8 OLI L1T, ZY-1-02C and Gaofen-1 images from October 2014 to July 2015. The velocity, measured by automatic feature extraction and tracking during the active phase, was 10–100 times the velocity during the quiescent phase, with a maximum of (20.2 ± 0.9) m d−1 (mean ± standard error) from 8 to 15 May 2015 in the west branch of the glacier. The surge initiation and termination took place from 13 April to 16 June 2015. Ice in the west branch (length, 7 km; area, 6.8 km2) of Karayaylak Glacier accelerated down to the east branch, leading to the development of crevasses and ice covering an additional 0.1 km2 of summer pasture on the northwestern side. However, we detected no advance of the glacier's terminus.

Glaciers in the Bugyai Kangri are located in a transition zone from southeast Tibet, where monsoonal temperate glaciers dominate, to inner Tibet, where continental glaciers dominate. Here we analyze glacier and glacial lake changes in this region using multi-year inventories based on Landsat images from 1981–2013. Results show that the total area of 141 glaciers in the region decreased by 30.44 ±0.89 km2 from 198.35 ±9.54 km2 (1980s) to 167.93 ±4.52 km2 (2010s). The annual area shrinkage rate (–0.48% a–1) is lower than that reported for southeastern Tibet but higher than that of inner Tibet. Both the number and total area of glacial lakes increased between 1981 and 2013. Among all lakes, proglacial lakes contribute most (~81 %) to the expansion. The total area of ten proglacial lakes increased by 150.3 ± 13.17% and of these ten lakes the four that expanded most sharply showed increased calving at their upper margins, resulting in more rapid retreat of lake-terminating glaciers than land-terminating glaciers. Owing to rapid calving, several lakes may undergo further growth in the near future, increasing the potential risk of glacial lake outburst floods.

The inner Tibetan Plateau is a glacierized region where glaciers show heterogeneous change. The Xinqingfeng and Malan ice caps are located in this region, and a transition zone exists with shifting influences between the westerlies and Indian summer monsoon. However, there is a lack of detailed information regarding glacier area and mass changes in this region before 2000. In the present study, we describe an integrated view of the glacier area and its mass changes for Mt. Xinqingfeng and Mt. Malan as derived from topographic maps, Landsat, ASTER, SRTM DEM, and TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X from 1970 to 2012 and from 1970 to 2018, respectively. Our results show that the glaciers experienced a slight shrinkage in area by 0.09 ± 0.03% a−1 from 1970 to 2018 with a median mass loss rate of 0.22 ± 0.17 m w.e. a−1 and 0.29 ± 0.17 m w.e. a−1 between 1999 and 2012 at Mt. Xinqingfeng and Mt. Malan, respectively. The glaciers of Mt. Malan had a total mass loss of 0.19 ± 0.14 m w.e. a−1 during the period 1970−1999. A minimum of seven glaciers at Mt. Xinqingfeng and Mt. Malan showed heterogeneous variations with either surging or advancing during the observation period. Among them, the West Monuomaha Glacier, Monuomaha Glacier, and Zu Glacier were identified as surging glaciers, and the others may also be surging glaciers, although more evidence is required. These glaciers showed a long active period and low velocities. Therefore, we suggested that thermal controls are important for surge initiation and recession.

Eye-tracking is an important approach to collect evidence regarding some participants’ driving fatigue. In this contribution, the authors present a non-intrusive system for evaluating driver fatigue by tracking eye movement behaviours. A real-time eye-tracker was used to monitor participants’ eye state for collecting eye-movement data. These data are useful to get insights into assessing participants’ fatigue state during monotonous driving. Ten healthy subjects performed continuous simulated driving for 1–2 h with eye state monitoring on a driving simulator in this study, and these measured features of the fixation time and the pupil area were recorded via using eye movement tracking device. For achieving a good cost-performance ratio and fast computation time, the fuzzy K-nearest neighbour was employed to evaluate and analyse the influence of different participants on the variations in the fixation duration and pupil area of drivers. The findings of this study indicated that there are significant differences in domain value distribution of the pupil area under the condition with normal and fatigue driving state. Result also suggests that the recognition accuracy by jackknife validation reaches to about 89% in average, implying that show a significant potential of real-time applicability of the proposed approach and is capable of detecting driver fatigue.

In this study, contour lines from the topographic maps at a 1:100,000 scale (mapped in 1968), Landsat MSS/TM/OLI images, ASTER images and SPOT 6-7 stereo image pairs were used to study changes in glacier length, area and surface elevation. We summarized the results using the following three conclusions: (1) During the period from 1973 to 2013, glaciers retreated by 412 ± 32 m at a mean retraction rate of 10.3 ± 0.8 m·year−1 and the relative retreat was 5.6 ± 0.4%. The glacier area shrank by 7.5 ± 3.4%, which was larger than the glacier length. In the periods of 1968⁻2000, 2000⁻2005 and 2000⁻2013, the glacier surface elevation change rates were −7.7 ± 1.4 m (−0.24 ± 0.04 m·year−1), −1.9 ± 1.5 m (−0.38 ± 0.25 m·year−1) and −5.0 ± 1.4 m (−0.38 ± 0.11 m·year−1), respectively. The changes in the glacier area and thickness exhibited similar trends, both showing a significant increasing reduction after 2000. (2) Eleven glaciers were identified as surging glaciers. Changes of the mass balance in surging glaciers were stronger than in non-surging glaciers between 1968 and 2013. Changes of area in surging glaciers were weaker than in non-surging glaciers. (3) Increasing temperature was the major cause of glacier thickness reduction and area shrinkage. The increase in precipitation, to a certain extent, inhibited glacial ablation but it did not change the status of the shrinkage in the glacial area and the reduction in the glacier thickness.

The assessment of glacier mass budget is crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Derived glacier mass changes in the Muztag Ata and Kongur Tagh (MAKT) region in the eastern Pamir, northwestern China, is helpful in improving our knowledge of the dynamics of glaciers under a changing climate in High Mountain Asia. Here, glacier area and mass changes derived from remote sensing data are investigated for the period 1971/76-2013/14 for glaciers in MAKT. We have used ASTER images (2013/14), Cartosat-1 (2014) and Landsat, SRTM (Shuttle Radar Terrain Mission) digital elevation model (DEM) (2000), topographic maps (1971/76) and the first and second Chinese glacier inventories (CGIs). Our results indicated that the glacier area of MAKT decreased from 1018.3 ± 12.99 km(2) in 1971/76 to 999.2 ± 31.22 km(2) in 2014 (-1.9 ± 0.2%). Weak area shrinkage of glaciers by 2.5 ± 0.5 km(2) (0.2 ± 0.1%) happened after 2000 and the period 2009-2014 even saw a slight expansion by 0.5 ± 0.1 km(2) (0.1 ± 0.0%). The glaciers in this region have experienced an overall loss of -6.99 ± 0.80 km(3) in ice volume or -0.15 ± 0.12 m water equivalent (w.e.) a-1 from 1971/76 to 2013/14. The mass budget of MAKT was -0.19 ± 0.19 m w.e. a-1 for the period ~1971/76-1999 and -0.14 ± 0.24 m w.e. a-1 during 1999-2013/2014. Similar to previous studies, there has been little mass change in the Pamir over recent decades despite such uncertainties. Glacier mass change showed spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with strong mass loss on debris-covered glaciers with an average of -0.32 ± 0.12 m w.e. a-1 from the 1970s to 2013/14.

Ionic liquids are considered environmentally friendly media for various industrial applications. Basic data on physicochemical properties are significant for a new material, in terms of developing its potential applications. In this work, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium fluoride ([EMIm]F) ionic liquid was synthesized via an anion metathesis process. Physical properties including the density, viscosity, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability of the product were measured. The results show that the density of [EMIm]F decreases linearly with temperature increases, while dynamic viscosity decreases rapidly below 320 K and the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity is in accordance with the VFT (Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann) equation. The temperature dependence of the density, conductivity, and viscosity of [EMIm]F can be expressed via the following equations: ρ = 1.516 − 1.22 × 10−3 T, σm = 4417.1exp[−953.17/(T − 166.65)] and η = 2.07 × 10−7exp(−5.39 × 104/T), respectively. [EMIm]F exhibited no clear melting point. However, its glass transition point and decomposition temperature are −71.3 °C and 135 °C, respectively.

The Ili River originates in the Tian Shan Mountains of Northwest China before flowing into Kazakhstan and Lake Balkash. Melting snow and ice are its major contributors. We analyzed glacial changes in the upper Ili River basin between the 1960s and 2007/2009 using topographic maps and satellite imagery from a Landsat TM. The relationships between glacial changes and glacial size, topographic factors, and debris cover were examined. Our results found that total glacial area decreased by 485 ± 177.3 km2 (24.2% ± 8.8%) during the study period, and there were no advancing glaciers. Additionally, 331 glaciers disappeared and 18 disintegrated into two or three smaller glaciers. This study demonstrated a linear relationship between glacial area change and elevation. Changes in glaciers smaller than 1 km2 were affected by both glacial size and topographic factors, while larger ones were affected by size only. Area losses in debris-covered glaciers were smaller by 2.5% to 7.5% compared to clean ice of the same size in this basin. As in other glaciated regions, glacial retreat in the Ili River basin is attributed to global warming. The slightly increasing precipitation over the study period could not offset the ice melting.

Glaciers' runoff in the Qilian Mountains serves as a critical water resource in the northern sections of the Gansu province, the northeastern sections of the Qinghai province, and the northeastern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau. Changes in the glacial area and volume around the highest peak of the Qilian Mountains, i.e., Tuanjiefeng Peak, were estimated using multi-temporal remote-sensing images and digital elevation models, and all possible sources of uncertainty were considered in detail. The total glacier area decreased by 16.1±6.34 km(2) (9.9±3.9%) during 1966 to 2010. The average annual glacier shrinkage was -0.15% a(-1) from 1966 to 1995, -0.61% a(-1) from 1995 to 2000, -0.20% a(-1) from 2000 to 2006, and -0.45% a(-1) from 2006 to 2010. A comparison of glacier surface elevations using digital elevation models derived from topographic maps in 1966 and from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 1999 suggests that 65% of the grid cells has decreased, thereby indicating that the glacier thickness has declined. The average change in glacier thickness was -7.3±1.5 m (-0.21±0.04 m·a(-1)) from 1966 to 1999. Glaciers with northeastern aspects thinned by 8.3±1.4 m from 1966 to 1999, i.e., almost twice as much as those with southwestern aspects (4.3±1.3 m). The ice volume decreased by 11.72±2.38×10(8) m(3) from 1966 to 1999, which was about 17.4% more than the value calculated from the statistical relationship between glacier area and volume. The relationship between glacier area change and elevation zone indicates that glacier change is not only dominated by climate change but also affected by glacier dynamics, which are related to local topography. The varied response of a single glacier to climate change indicates that the glacier area change scheme used in some models must be improved.

Glycolysis of waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a green and high-value PET recovery approach, the product of which can be used as raw materials to prepare polyurethanes. Enhancing the conversion rate and monomer selectivity of PET glycolysis through the development of efficient catalysts is crucial for reducing both the energy consumption and operational costs associated with the process. In this study, a series of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were synthesised based on L-proline (Pro) and its derivatives and used as catalysts for the glycolysis of PET using 1,4-butanediol (BDO). Under the optimized reaction conditions (5.0 g PET, 25.0 g BDO, 2 wt% Pro/Zn(Ac)2 catalyst, 210 °C, 15 min and atmospheric pressure), PET was degraded completely, and the yield of monomeric bis(4-hydroxybutyl)terephthalate (BHBT) reached 67.1%. Based on the results of in situ-IR, ¹H NMR and density functional theory (DFT), the possible catalytic mechanism of DESs synergistically promoting PET depolymerization was proposed. Finally, aromaticbased polyurethane elastomers (PUEs) were prepared with PET glycolysis products bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) and BHBT as chain extenders. Compared with the control group, the thermal and mechanical properties of aromatic-based PUEs were improved, which proved the feasibility of high value utilization of PET glycolysis products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]