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In order to understand the seasonal levels, formation mechanism and atmospheric chemical behaviours of water-soluble ions of PM10 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, aerosol samples were collected from January 2nd to December 28th, 2017 at a WMO/GAW regional background station in Lin’an. The concentrations of PM mass and nine water-soluble inorganic ions were obtained. The annual average concentration of PM10 was 59.9±33.9 μg m−3, lower than those reported in previous studies, indicating air quality of YRD region was improved. Nine water-soluble inorganic ions was accounted for 30.2-45.1% of the total PM mass, while ammonium (NH4+), sulfate (SO42+), as well as nitrate (NO3-) were the major ions which contributed 86.3% to total ions. The NO3- concentration was lowest in summer but highest in winter, suggesting it was likely influenced by thermodynamics. The levels of SO42- in spring and winter were related to photochemical reaction and regional transportation. Except for the SNA, Ca2+ was highest in four seasons likely due to sand storm and road fugitive dust. The annual mean ratio of [NO3-]/[SO42-] was nearly to 1, indicating mobile and stationary sources were equally important in Lin’an. The mean nitrogen oxidation ratio (NOR) and sulfur oxidation ratio (SOR) were 0.22±0.13 and 0.41±0.13, respectively, suggesting secondary formation was significant in the atmosphere at the background station of YRD region.

Background Respiratory problems in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are prone to poor sleep quality, anxiety and depression, but they are often ignored by medical staff and patients themselves. Understanding the sleep quality, anxiety and depression symptoms of patients with COPD and their influencing factors can help to improve the quality of life of patients, however, there are few relevant studies. Objective To investigate the sleep quality, anxiety and depression of patients with COPD and explore the influencing factors. Methods Convenience sampling was used to recruit COPD patients who visited the Department Respiratory Diseases and Critical Care Medicine of seven hospitals in Anhui Province from August to November 2022. Demographic characteristics, dyspnea grade, airflow restriction severity, risk of malnutrition, physical activity level, vaccination, and acute exacerbations in the last 1 year were collected. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to evaluate the sleep quality and anxiety and depression symptoms of COPD patients, and the influencing factors were analyzed by multivariate Logistic regression. Results A total of 248 patients with COPD were investigated, among which the incidence of poor sleep quality was 60.9% (151/248), only 8.9% (22/248) of the patients thought they had good sleep quality, and more than half of the patients actually had insufficient sleep time (54.4%) or low sleep efficiency (60.1%). 29.4% (73/248) of COPD patients had at least one of the symptoms of anxiety or depression, of which 35 had anxiety symptoms, 61 had depression symptoms, and 23 had both anxiety and depression symptoms. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that older ages (OR=1.052, 95%CI=1.018-1.086) and risk of malnutrition (OR=3.393, 95%CI=1.855-6.206) were risk factors for poor sleep quality in COPD patients. Regular physical activity was a protective factor for poor sleep quality in COPD patients (OR=0.450, 95%CI=0.242-0.834) (P

As a kind of good damping material, viscoelastic material is widely used in machinery, civil engineering, and other fields. In this paper, the viscoelasticity of the system is described by fractional differentiation. The dynamic response of a unilateral vibro-impact system with a viscoelastic oscillator under joint random excitation is studied, in which joint random excitation is composed of additive and multiplicative white noise. The fractional-order derivative was calculated based on Caputo's definition, and the fractional derivative was equivalent to the corresponding linear damping force and linear restoring force. As a result, a new random system without fractional-order terms was obtained. A non-smooth transformation was introduced, which was equivalent to the original system to a new system without a velocity jump. The steady-state probability density functions of fractional-order vibro-impact systems under joint random excitation are solved by using the random average method and non-smooth transformation. In addition, the effects of parameters on the steady-state response of the system are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This was a cross-sectional survey to investigate the relationship of age, parent education, sleep duration, physical activity, and dietary habits with overweight or obesity in school-age children in Shanghai. Methods: The survey gathered information from 13,001 children in grades 1 through 5 (age 6 to 10 years) among 26 elementary schools in 7 districts. Activity level was evaluated using the International Children's Leisure Activities Study Survey Questionnaire (CLASS-C). The definitions of normal, overweight, and obese were adjusted for each age. Results: Logistic regression analysis indicated that age, being male, having =10 hours of sleep on non-school days, eating =1 vegetable/day, or drinking =1 sugar-sweetened drink/day increased the risk for a child being overweight or obese compared with having >10 hours of sleep or =3 vegetables or =3 sugar-sweetened drinks/month (p = 0.008). Having >2 hours of outdoor activities on non-school days reduced the risk of being overweight or obese compared with =2 hours of outdoor activities on non-school days (p < 0.001). Conclusions: We found that age, sex, sleep, and some dietary habits impacted weight, and suggests that specific cultural and economic factors may impact risk of a child being overweight or obese.

Summary: Sleep variability is commonly seen in the young populations. This study aimed to examine the impacts of experimentally induced sleep variability on sleepiness, mood, cognitive performance and sleep architectures among young adults. Thirty‐six healthy individuals (aged 18–22 years) were randomly assigned to either variable sleep schedule (n = 20) or control (n = 16) groups. The protocol involved 1 week of regular sleep (time in bed = 7.5 hr) in the home setting, followed by one adaptation night (time in bed = 7.5 hr), one baseline night (time in bed = 7.5 hr), and 6 nights of sleep manipulation in the laboratory monitored by polysomnography (three cycles of variable sleep schedule by changing daily time in bed alternating between 6 hr and 9 hr for variable sleep schedule group versus fixed sleep schedule with daily time in bed for 7.5 hr for control group). Sleepiness, mood, sustained attention, processing speed, response inhibition and working memory were measured every morning and evening. The variable sleep schedule group reported a higher level of sleepiness, especially in the mornings, and increased negative mood in the evenings. There were no significant differences in positive mood, cognitive performance and sleep macro‐ and micro‐structures. Our results showed the negative effects of sleep variability on daytime functioning especially sleepiness and negative mood, suggesting the need to address variable sleep schedules through sleep intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient separation of acetylene (C2H2) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and CnH4 (n = 1 and 2) to manufacture high purity C2H2 and recover other light hydrocarbons is technologically important, while posing significant challenges. Herein, we reported a new TiF62− anion (TIFSIX) pillared metal-organic framework (MOF) ZNU-5 (ZNU = Zhejiang Normal University) with ultramicropores for highly selective C2H2 capture with low adsorption heat through gate opening based molecular sieving effect. ZNU-5 takes up a large amount of C2H2 (128.6 cm3/g) at 1.0 bar and 298 K but excludes CO2, CH4, and C2H4. Such high capacity has never been realized in MOFs with molecular sieving. The breakthrough experiments further confirmed the highly selective C2H2 separation performance from multi-component gas mixtures. 3.3, 2.8, and 2.2 mmol/g of C2H2 is captured at ZNU-5 from equimolar C2H2/CO2, C2H2/CO2/CH4, and C2H2/CO2/CH4/C2H4 mixtures, respectively. Furthermore, 2.6, 2.0, and 1.5 mmol/g of > 98% purity C2H2 can be recycled from the desorption process. Combining high working capacity, low adsorption heat, as well as good recyclability, ZNU-5 is promising for C2H2 purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]