Data_Sheet_1_An application of BWM for risk control in reverse logistics of medical waste.docx

The pollution posed by medical waste complicate the procedures of medical waste logistics (MWL), and the increasingly frequent occurrence of public health emergencies has magnified the risks posed by it. In this study, the authors established an index of the factors influencing the risks posed by MWL along five dimensions: the logistics business, emergency capacity, equipment, personnel, and management. The best-worst case method was used to identify the critical risk-related factors and rank them by importance. Following this, we assessed the risk posed by MWL in four major cities in China as an example and propose the corresponding measures of risk control. The results showed that the linking of business processes was the most important factor influencing the risk posed by MWL. The other critical risk-related factors included the location of the storage site, the capacity for emergency transportation, measures to manage emergencies, and the safety of packaging. Of the cities considered, Beijing was found to be a high-risk city, and its MWL needed to be improved as soon as possible in light of the relevant critical risks. Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen were evaluated as general-risk cities, which meant that the risks of MWL were not a priority in these areas, and the other goals of urban development should be comprehensively considered during the long-term planning for MWL in these municipalities.</p

Comparisons of three models for different percentages of acquired k-space data.

<p>Comparisons of three models for different percentages of acquired k-space data.</p

Hollow Ni₃Se₄ with High Tap Density as a Carbon-Free Sulfur Immobilizer to Realize High Volumetric and Gravimetric Capacity for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Despite that the practical gravimetric energy density of lithium sulfur batteries has exceeded that of the traditional lithium-ion battery, the volumetric energy density still pales due to the low density of carbonaceous materials. Herein, hollow polar nickel selenide (Ni3Se4) with various architectures was designed and employed as a carbon-free sulfur immobilizer. Among them, hollow sea urchins like Ni3Se4 with high porosity (0.39 cm3 g–1) and large specific surface area (82.7 m2 g–1) exhibit abundant adsorptive and electrocatalytic sites, which pledge excellent electrochemical performances of the Li–S battery. Correspondingly, the Ni3Se4-based sulfur electrode presents excellent rate endurability (581 mAh g–1–composite at 2.0 C) and superior cycle stability (ultralow fading rate of 0.042% per cycle during the 1000 cycles at 1.0 C). More importantly, thanks to the higher tap density (Ni3Se4/S: 1.57 g cm–3 vs super P/S: 0.7 g cm–3), the volumetric specific capacity of Ni3Se4-based cathodes is as high as 1699 mAh cm–3–composite at 0.1 C, which is almost 2.8 times that of the carbonaceous electrode. Hence, rational transition metal selenide architecture design with synergistic function of good conductivity, well-defined catalyst and adsorption, as well as high tap density provide a promising route toward high gravimetric and volumetric energy density of Li–S batteries

Balanced Sparse Model for Tight Frames in Compressed Sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging

<div><p>Compressed sensing has shown to be promising to accelerate magnetic resonance imaging. In this new technology, magnetic resonance images are usually reconstructed by enforcing its sparsity in sparse image reconstruction models, including both synthesis and analysis models. The synthesis model assumes that an image is a sparse combination of atom signals while the analysis model assumes that an image is sparse after the application of an analysis operator. Balanced model is a new sparse model that bridges analysis and synthesis models by introducing a penalty term on the distance of frame coefficients to the range of the analysis operator. In this paper, we study the performance of the balanced model in tight frame based compressed sensing magnetic resonance imaging and propose a new efficient numerical algorithm to solve the optimization problem. By tuning the balancing parameter, the new model achieves solutions of three models. It is found that the balanced model has a comparable performance with the analysis model. Besides, both of them achieve better results than the synthesis model no matter what value the balancing parameter is. Experiment shows that our proposed numerical algorithm constrained split augmented Lagrangian shrinkage algorithm for balanced model (C-SALSA-B) converges faster than previously proposed algorithms accelerated proximal algorithm (APG) and alternating directional method of multipliers for balanced model (ADMM-B).</p></div

Parameters for algorithms used in this paper.

<p>Parameters for algorithms used in this paper.</p

Comparisons of C-SALSA-B to APG and ADMM-B for more MR images.

<p>Comparisons of C-SALSA-B to APG and ADMM-B for more MR images.</p

Impact of the balancing parameter <i>γ</i> on reconstructed errors when orthogonal wavelets is used.

<p>Impact of the balancing parameter <i>γ</i> on reconstructed errors when orthogonal wavelets is used.</p

Difference between the coefficients and the canonical coefficient of a signal.

<p>Difference between the coefficients and the canonical coefficient of a signal.</p

Synthesis of Bacteria Promoted Reduced Graphene Oxide-Nickel Sulfide Networks for Advanced Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors with potential high power are useful and have attracted much attention recently. Graphene-based composites have been demonstrated to be promising electrode materials for supercapacitors with enhanced properties. To improve the performance of graphene-based composites further and realize their synthesis with large scale, we report a green approach to synthesize bacteria-reduced graphene oxide-nickel sulfide (BGNS) networks. By using Bacillus subtilis as spacers, we deposited reduced graphene oxide/Ni3S2 nanoparticle composites with submillimeter pores directly onto substrate by a binder-free electrostatic spray approach to form BGNS networks. Their electrochemical capacitor performance was evaluated. Compared with stacked reduced graphene oxide-nickel sulfide (GNS) prepared without the aid of bacteria, BGNS with unique nm−μm structure exhibited a higher specific capacitance of about 1424 F g–1 at a current density of 0.75 A g–1. About 67.5% of the capacitance was retained as the current density increased from 0.75 to 15 A g–1. At a current density of 75 A g–1, a specific capacitance of 406 F g–1 could still remain. The results indicate that the reduced graphene oxide-nickel sulfide network promoted by bacteria is a promising electrode material for supercapacitors

A Zn(ClO₄)₂ Electrolyte Enabling Long-Life Zinc Metal Electrodes for Rechargeable Aqueous Zinc Batteries

The degradation or dendrite formation of zinc metal electrodes has shown to limit the cycle life of rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries, and a few anode protection methods are proposed. We herein demonstrate that, except for external protections, a simple design of an electrolyte can effectively promote stable and facile Zn stripping/plating from/on zinc electrodes. By using Zn­(ClO4)2 in the aqueous electrolyte, reversible Zn stripping/plating is achieved for over 3000 h at 1 mA cm–2 current density and 1 mA h cm–2 capacity, superior to the conventional ZnSO4 electrolyte. The overpotential is constant within each cycle and only increases slightly with the increase of current densities. The excellent performance is guaranteed by the controlled formation of a Cl– containing layer, which limits continuous side reactions. The Zn­(ClO4)2 electrolyte shows anodic stability up to 2.4 V, and excellent electrochemical performance is achieved for an example cell with the VO2 cathode, confirming the applicability of the electrolyte for Zn batteries