Sunlight penetration dominates the thermal regime and energetics of a shallow ice-covered lake in arid climate

The Mongolian Plateau is characterized by cold and arid winters with very little precipitation (snowfall), strong solar insolation, and dry air, but little is known about the thermal regimes of the ice and ice-covered lakes and their response to the distinct weather and climate in this region. In a typical large, shallow lake, ice and snow processes (cover) and under-ice thermodynamics were monitored for four winters in 2015-2019. Heat transfer at the ice-water interface and lake heat budget were investigated. The results revealed that persistent bare ice of 35-50 cm thickness transmits 20 %-35 % of the incident solar radiation into the water below. This is a dominant source for under-ice energy flows and causes/maintains high water temperature (up to 6-8 degrees C) and high heat flux from water to ice (averages of 20-45 W m(-2)) in mid-winter, as well as higher heat conduction in the ice interior during freezing. The heat balance shows that the transmitted radiation and the heat flux from water to ice are the dominant and highly correlated heat flows in the lake. Both bulk water temperature and temperature structure are sensitive to solar transmittance and occasional snow events. Under-ice convective mixing does not necessarily occur because of stratification of salinity in the water body. In particular, salt exclusion during freezing changes both the bulk salinity and the salinity profile, which plays a major role in the stability and mixing of the water column in this shallow lake.Peer reviewe

The association between sleep duration, respiratory symptoms, asthma, and COPD in adults

IntroductionThe association between sleep duration and cough, wheezing, and dyspnea was unclear. This research aimed to test this relationship.MethodsResearch data were obtained from people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005 to 2012. We used weighted logistic regression analysis and fitted curves to explore the association between sleep and respiratory symptoms. In addition, we investigated the association between sleep duration, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma. The stratified analysis is used to analyze inflection points and specific populations.ResultsThe 14,742 subjects are weighted to reflect the 45,678,491 population across the United States. Weighted logistic regression and fitted curves show a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and cough and dyspnea. This U-shaped relationship remained in people without COPD and asthma. The stratified analysis confirmed that sleep duration before 7.5 h was negatively associated with cough (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.73–0.87) and dyspnea (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.77–0.88). In contrast, it was positively associated with cough and (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.14–1.48) dyspnea (HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.00–1.26) when sleep duration was >7.5 h. In addition, short sleep duration is associated with wheezing, asthma, and COPD.ConclusionBoth long and short sleep duration are associated with cough and dyspnea. And short sleep duration is also an independent risk factor for wheezing, asthma, and COPD. This finding provides new insights into the management of respiratory symptoms and diseases

Replacing Traditional Plastics with Biodegradable Plastics:Impact on Carbon Emissions

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on the environmental impact of plastics, including the carbon emissions related to plastics, which has promoted the application of biodegradable plastics. Countries worldwide have shown high interest in replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics. However, no systematic comparison has been conducted on the carbon emissions of biodegradable versus traditional plastic products. This study evaluates the carbon emissions of traditional and biodegradable plastic products (BPPs) over four stages and briefly discusses environmental and economic perspectives. Four scenarios—namely, the traditional method, chemical recycling, industrial composting, and anaerobic digestion—are considered for the disposal of waste biodegradable plastic product (WBBPs). The analysis takes China as a case study. The results show that the carbon emissions of 1000 traditional plastic products (plastic bags, lunch boxes, cups, etc.) were 52.09–150.36 carbon emissions equivalent of per kilogram (kg CO2eq), with the stage of plastic production contributing 50.71%–50.77%. In comparison, 1000 similar BPPs topped out at 21.06–56.86 kg CO2eq, approximately 13.53%–62.19% lower than traditional plastic products. The difference was mainly at the stages of plastic production and waste disposal, and the BPPs showed significant carbon reduction potential at the raw material acquisition stage. Waste disposal plays an important role in environmental impact, and composting and anaerobic digestion are considered to be preferable disposal methods for WBBPs. However, the high cost of biodegradable plastics is a challenge for their widespread use. This study has important reference significance for the sustainable development of the biodegradable plastics industry.</p

Indoxyl Sulfate Induces Mesangial Cell Proliferation via the Induction of COX-2

Indoxyl sulfate (IS) is one of important uremic toxins and is markedly accumulated in the circulation of end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, which might contribute to the damage of residual nephrons and progressive loss of residual renal function (RRF). Thus this study was undertaken to investigate the role of IS in modulating mesangial cell (MC) proliferation and the underlying mechanism. The proliferation of MCs induced by IS was determined by cell number counting, DNA synthase rate, and cell cycle phase analysis. COX-2 expression was examined by Western blotting and qRT-PCR, and a specific COX-2 inhibitor NS398 was applied to define its role in IS-induced MC proliferation. Following IS treatment, MCs exhibited increased total cell number, DNA synthesis rate, and number of cells in S and G2 phases paralleled with the upregulation of cyclin A2 and cyclin D1. Next, we found an inducible inflammation-related enzyme COX-2 was remarkably enhanced by IS, and the inhibition of COX-2 by NS398 significantly blocked IS-induced MC proliferation in line with a blockade of PGE2 production. These findings indicated that IS could induce MC proliferation via a COX-2-mediated mechanism, providing new insights into the understanding and therapies of progressive loss of RRF in ESRD

Investigation on viscosity and non-isothermal crystallization behavior of P-bearing steelmaking slags with varying TiO2 content

The viscous flow and crystallization behavior of CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FetO-P2O5-TiO2 steelmaking slags have been investigated over a wide range of temperatures under Ar (High purity, >99.999 pct) atmosphere, and the relationship between viscosity and structure was determined. The results indicated that the viscosity of the slags slightly decreased with increasing TiO2 content. The constructed nonisothermal continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagrams revealed that the addition of TiO2 lowered the crystallization temperature. This can mainly be ascribed to that addition of TiO2 promotes the formation of [TiO6]-octahedra units and, consequently, the formation of MgFe2O4-Mg2TiO4 solid solution. Moreover, the decreasing viscosity has a significant effect on enhancing the diffusion of ion units, such as Ca2+ and [TiO4]-tetrahedra, from bulk melts to the crystal–melt interface. The crystallization of CaTiO3 and CaSiTiO5 was consequently accelerated, which can improve the phosphorus content in P-enriched phase (n2CaO·SiO2-3CaO·P2O5). Finally, the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics was characterized and the activation energy for the primary crystal growth was derived such that the activation energy increases from −265.93 to −185.41 KJ·mol−1 with the addition of TiO2 content, suggesting that TiO2 lowered the tendency for the slags to crystallize

A Raman spectroscopic comparison of calcite and dolomite

Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize and differentiate the two minerals calcite and dolomite and the bands related to the mineral structure. The (CO3)2− group is characterized by four prominent Raman vibrational modes: (a) the symmetric stretching, (b) the asymmetric deformation, (c) asymmetric stretching and (d) symmetric deformation. These vibrational modes of the calcite and dolomite were observed at 1440, 1088, 715 and 278 cm−1. The significant differences between the minerals calcite and dolomite are observed by Raman spectroscopy. Calcite shows the typical bands observed at 1361, 1047, 715 and 157 cm−1, and the special bands at 1393, 1098, 1069, 1019, 299, 258 and 176 cm−1 for dolomite are observed. The difference is explained on the basis of the structure variation of the two minerals. Calcite has a trigonal structure with two molecules per unit cell, and dolomite has a hexagonal structure. This is more likely to cause the splitting and distorting of the carbonate groups. Another cause for the difference is the cation substituting for Mg in the dolomite mineral

Evaluating maturity of source rocks by aromatic compounds: A case from Dongling Block, Songliao Basin

The characteristics of the thermal evolution of aromatic maturity parameters, such as methyl phenanthrene, alkylated dibenzothiophene, dehydroxy-tocopherol and triaromatic-sterane series compounds are discussed on the basis of molecular organic geochemistry and GC-MS analysis of the source rocks in the Dongling area of the Songliao Basin. The distribution characteristics of aromatic hydrocarbon chromatography, the methyl phenanthrene index (MPI), the ratio of β/γ dehydroxy-tocopherol, 4-/1-MDBT, 4,6-/1,4-DMDBT, TASC27 (20R)/C28 (20R), the content of the triaromatic-sterane series and vitrinite reflectance measurements all suggest that the Lower Cretaceous Quantou Formation source rock is in the middle stage of maturity, whereas the Lower Cretaceous Yingcheng Formation and the Upper Jurassic Huoshiling Formation source rocks have reached a high maturity stage

Expanding the scope of chemiluminescence in bioanalysis with functional nanomaterials

Nanomaterial-enabled chemiluminescence (CL) detection has become a growing area of interest in recent years. We review the development of nanomaterial-based CL detection strategies and their applications in bioanalysis. Much progress has been achieved in the past decade, but most attempts still remain in the proof-of-concept stage. This review highlights recent advances in nanomaterials in CL detection and organizes them into three groups based on their role in detection: as a sensing platform, as a signal probe, and applications in homogeneous systems. Furthermore, we have discussed the critical challenges we are facing and future prospects of this field

Comparison of combustion kinetics of the biomass hydrolysis residue with raw biomass materials

The biomass hydrolysis residue (BHR) is the residue consisting of mainly lignin after the biomass-to-ethanol process. A combustion kinetic comparison of the biomass material (BM), BHR, and three main components (lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose) is studied by thermogravimetry (TG) using the Kissinger method and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) method under five different heating rates. The results show that the ignition temperature (Ti) and burnout temperature (Tb) of BHR are both higher than those of BM. BM burns more sufficient than BHR because it contains more fixed carbon content. The results show that the activation energy calculated by the Kissinger method for the corn cob hydrolysis residue (CCHR), corn straw hydrolysis residue (CSHR) and corn cob (CC) is 188.08, 192.76 and 205.76 kJ/mol, respectively. The results calculated by the FWO method show that, when the mass conversion (α) is small, EBHR &gt; EBM, as α increases, E of BM gradually exceeds that of BHR. This could explain the phenomenon why BHR ignites earlier than BM but burns out later than BM. The power law (P4 and P2) reaction models are proper to describe the experimental behavior of BHR and BM, respectively. This paper also verifies that, on the premise of an accurate measurement of the three main components in BM and BHR, the TG curves and kinetic parameters of BM and BHR can be predicted