Investigation on Upconversion Luminescence and Optical Temperature Sensing Behavior for Ba₂Gd₂Si₄O₁₃:Yb³⁺-Er³⁺/Ho³⁺/Tm³⁺ Phosphors

To explore new phosphors for temperature sensing with high detection sensitivity, the Yb³⁺-Er³⁺/Ho³⁺/Tm³⁺ doped Ba₂Gd₂Si₄O₁₃ (BGS) was designed. Different strategies were introduced based on the upconversion (UC) luminescence. For BGS:0.2Yb³⁺,0.02Er³⁺, the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of two green emissions of Er³⁺ shows a gradual enhancement with increasing temperature due to the thermally coupled levels. The piecewise expression of sensitivity was proposed in the temperature range of 293–553 K based on the Boltzmann distribution. For BGS:0.2Yb³⁺,0.01Ho³⁺, the FIR of the red to green emissions of Ho³⁺ changes with temperature, showing a linear relationship from 293 to 453 K. The absolute sensitivity was gained to be 0.0452 K^–1. For BGS:0.2Yb³⁺,0.02Tm³⁺, the high absolute and relative sensitivities were both achieved by employing the thermally coupled (³F₂,³F₃) and ³H₄ levels of Tm³⁺. The above study could have special reference to the development of new luminescent materials with high sensitivity

Solvent Extraction of Superfine Pulverized Coal. Part 2. Free-Radical Characteristics

To better explore coal macromolecular models from the extraction aspects, the behaviors of free radicals during the solvent extraction of superfine pulverized coal were studied. The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) method was employed to characterize the extracts and extraction residues (ERs) from the pyridine (PY) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) extraction processes. The EPR parameters of different paramagnetic centers were analyzed through the peak deconvolution, and the detailed extraction mechanisms were discussed. The result suggests that the particle size and polarity of the reagent have the combined influences on the free-radical characteristics during the extraction process. Compared to the raw coals (rcs), the free-radical concentrations of the ER show a similar level, while these are 1 order of magnitude lower for the extracts (about 6 to 9% of rcs). In addition, PY with higher polarity is prone to attack the non-covalent interactions like hydrogen bonds, which can extract more abundant molecule components connected by charge-transfer forces, resulting in 35.42% higher spin concentrations compared to the THF extracts. On the other hand, THF with an affinity with oxygen-containing groups can loosen the coal structure, which extracts more stable oxygenated compounds. In addition, THF can effectively target the π–π interactions, and the paramagnetic centers on these aromatic clusters can be better preserved due to the steric hindrance effect. The study sheds light on better elucidation of coal macromolecular structures, which provides support on better understanding coal pyrolysis and liquefaction behaviors

Interactions of Oil Shale and Hydrogen-Rich Wastes during Co-pyrolysis: Co-pyrolysis of Oil Shale and Waste Tire

Co-pyrolysis of oil shale and waste tire could be an economical and environmental-friendly way to recover waste tire if it could improve the quality and quantity of pyrolytic shale oil. In this paper, a thermogravimetric system coupled with a mass spectrometry system (TG-MS) was applied to investigate pyrolytic behaviors of co-pyrolysis. It was found that co-pyrolysis had little effect on char formation; however, the MS system detected that co-pyrolysis boosted gaseous volatiles of a medium molecular weight as well as H2 and H radicals. Therefore, simulating cells were constructed to run reactive force filed molecular dynamics (ReaxFF MD) simulations, which aim to further investigate mechanisms of co-pyrolysis. In simulations, intermediate products were categorized into six classes according to the carbon number. Simulations indicated that co-pyrolysis had little effect on char mass fractions (40 ≤ C), which coincided with the TG findings. Meanwhile, co-pyrolysis favored the breakage of CC bonds and CO bonds within kerogen and thus resulted in more light shale oil with less heteroatom O. Specifically, a more light oil fraction (5 ≤ C ≤ 9) is the product of rearrangement reactions whose reactants are the gaseous intermediate (C < 5) from CC bond rupture. The heteroatom O from CO bond rupture is much more likely to transform into H2O

NO Emissions from Oxidizer-Staged Combustion of Superfine Pulverized Coal in the O₂/CO₂ Atmosphere

The CO₂ control technologies have been studied extensively in recent years, among which the oxy-fuel combustion shows a vast number of advantages to be explored commercially in the near future. However, unexpected problems, such as bad combustion characteristics and serious slagging and depositing issues, show up with the replacement of N₂ by CO₂. These inherent disadvantages in normal O₂/CO₂ combustion can be restrained via combining the superfine pulverized coal and oxy-fuel combustion technology. The axial NO emission characteristics of this new technology were focused here. The effects of the oxidizer staging were also studied in detail. Results indicate that the axial NO emissions of the unstaged O₂/CO₂ combustion basically showed “M” type of distributions along the furnace. The “M” type can be divided into the main homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction zones. The oxidizer-staged O₂/CO₂ combustion can mitigate NO emissions effectively. Coals with smaller particle sizes and higher volatiles are more advantageous for eliminating NO in the staged O₂/CO₂ combustion technology. The superfine pulverized coal used with certain low NO combustion technologies shows significant superiority in both combustion performance and NO abatement

Table_1_The effect of diet quality on the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.docx

ObjectiveTo examine the effect of diet quality on the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus.MethodsThis review included cohort and case-control studies reporting an association between diet quality and gestational diabetes mellitus. We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, Chinese Periodical Full-text Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and China Wanfang Database for studies published from inception to November 18, 2022. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for quality assessment, and the overall quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADEpro GDT.ResultsA total of 19 studies (15 cohort, four case-control) with 108,084 participants were included. We found that better higher diet quality before or during pregnancy reduced the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus, including a higher Mediterranean diet (OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.30–0.86), dietary approaches to stop hypertension (OR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.44–0.97), Alternate Healthy Eating Index (OR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.44–0.83), overall plant-based diet index (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.41–0.78), and adherence to national dietary guidelines (OR: 0.39; 95% CI:0.31–0.48). However, poorer diet quality increased the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, including a higher dietary inflammatory index (OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.21–1.57) and overall low-carbohydrate diets (OR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.22–1.64). After meta-regression, subgroup, and sensitivity analyses, the results remained statistically significant.ConclusionsBefore and during pregnancy, higher diet quality reduced the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus, whereas poorer diet quality increased this risk.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier: CRD42022372488.</p

Fig 3 -

(A) FINS, (B) HOMA-IR, (C) HOMA-IS, and (D) HOMA-β of the four rat groups.*P < 0.05 vs. the NC group.</p

Differentially expressed proteins in the placentas of the HFHS+STZ and NC groups.

Differentially expressed proteins in the placentas of the HFHS+STZ and NC groups.</p

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(XLSX)</p