Nano rare-earth oxides induced size-dependent vacuolization: an independent pathway from autophagy

Four rare earth oxides have been shown to induce autophagy. Interestingly, we often noticed plentiful vacuolization, which was not always involved in this autophagic process. In this study, we investigated three other rare-earth elements, including Yttrium (Y), Ytterbium (Yb), and Lanthanum (La). Autophagic effect could be induced by all of them but only Y2O3 and Yb2O3 could cause massive vacuolization. Y2O3 and Yb2O3 treated by sonication or centrifugation to reduce particle size were used to test vacuolization level in HeLa cell lines. The results showed that rare earth oxides-induced vacuolization is size-dependent and differs from autophagic pathway. To further clarify the characteristics of this autophagic process, we used MEF Atg-5 (autophagy associated gene 5) knockout cell line, and the result showed that the autophagic process induced by rare earth oxides is Atg-5-dependent and the observed vacuolization was independent from autophagy. Similar results could also be observed in our tests on 3-methyladenine(3-MA), a well-known autophagy inhibitor. In conclusion, for the first time, we clarified the relationship between massive vacuolization and autophagic process induced by rare earth oxides and pointed out the size effect of rare earth oxides on the formation of vacuoles, which give clues to further investigation on the mechanisms underlying their biological effects

Agent-assisted Electrokinetic treatment of Sewage Sludge: Heavy Metal Removal Effectiveness and Nutrient Content Characteristics

Sewage sludge (SS) is rich in nutrient elements such as phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N), and potassium (K), and therefore a candidate material for use in agriculture. But high content of heavy metals (HMs) can be a major obstacle to its further utilization. Therefore, an appropriate HM removal technology is required before its land application. In this study, an innovative biodegradable agent (citric acid, FeCl3, ammonium hydroxide, Tetrasodium iminodisuccinate (IDS), and tea saponin) assisted electrokinetic treatment (EK) was performed to investigate the HM removal efficiency (RHMs) and nutrient transportation. Citric acid, IDS, and FeCl3-assisted EK showed a preferable average RHMs (Rave) reduction of 52.74−59.23%, with low energy consumption. After treatment, the content of Hg (0.51 mg•kg−1), Ni (13.23 mg•kg−1), and Pb (26.45 mg•kg−1) elements met the criteria of national risk control standard, in all cases. Following the treatment, most HMs in SS had a reduced potential to be absorbed by plants or be leached into water systems. Risk assessment indicated that the Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) value of HMs has decreased by 0.28−2.40, and the risk of Pb (Igeo=−0.74) reduced to unpolluted potential. Meanwhile, no excessive nutrient loss in SS occurred as a result of the treatment, on the contrary, there was a slight increase in P content (18.17 mg•g−1). These results indicate that agent-assisted EK treatment could be an environmentally-friendly method for RHMs and nutrient element recovery from SS, opening new opportunities for sustainable SS recycling and its inclusion into circular economy concepts

Depth Completion with Multiple Balanced Bases and Confidence for Dense Monocular SLAM

Dense SLAM based on monocular cameras does indeed have immense application value in the field of AR/VR, especially when it is performed on a mobile device. In this paper, we propose a novel method that integrates a light-weight depth completion network into a sparse SLAM system using a multi-basis depth representation, so that dense mapping can be performed online even on a mobile phone. Specifically, we present a specifically optimized multi-basis depth completion network, called BBC-Net, tailored to the characteristics of traditional sparse SLAM systems. BBC-Net can predict multiple balanced bases and a confidence map from a monocular image with sparse points generated by off-the-shelf keypoint-based SLAM systems. The final depth is a linear combination of predicted depth bases that can be optimized by tuning the corresponding weights. To seamlessly incorporate the weights into traditional SLAM optimization and ensure efficiency and robustness, we design a set of depth weight factors, which makes our network a versatile plug-in module, facilitating easy integration into various existing sparse SLAM systems and significantly enhancing global depth consistency through bundle adjustment. To verify the portability of our method, we integrate BBC-Net into two representative SLAM systems. The experimental results on various datasets show that the proposed method achieves better performance in monocular dense mapping than the state-of-the-art methods. We provide an online demo running on a mobile phone, which verifies the efficiency and mapping quality of the proposed method in real-world scenarios

Research on Decision-Making for a Photovoltaic Power Generation Business Model under Integrated Energy Services

The 14th Five-Year Plan for renewable energy development proposes that renewable energy should achieve high-quality leapfrog development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The rapid development of integrated energy services has created more market opportunities for photovoltaics, and the photovoltaic (PV) industry has entered a new stage. In this study, from the perspective of stakeholders of a PV micro-grid under integrated energy services, a decision model for a PV micro-grid business model was established with the help of fuzzy mathematical theory. The MATLAB platform was used to carry out the decision analysis and simulation of the PV micro-grid business model. The simulation results showed that the self-consumption business model had the best overall performance among the current three different business models. It was also the business model with the highest comprehensive correlation with the government, power grids, investors, and users. Studying the best business model for PV micro-grids under integrated energy services has practical significance as it provides guidance and promotes faster and better development of PV micro-grids under integrated energy services

Development Status and Prospects of Clean and Efficient Coal-fired Power Technology in China

National Development and Reform Commission, National Energy Administration printed Energy Production and Consumption Revolution Strategy (2016~2030), planned clean and efficient production and utilization of coal industry from three aspects: centralized use of coal, promotion of clean coal utilization, and promotion of green coal production. For the coal-fired power industry, promoting clean coal utilization has become the most important target task for the current and future period. This paper analyzes China’s energy development status in terms of China’s energy, power development and power energy structure. Based on the existing application of China’s clean and efficient coal-fired power technology, we investigated the resource efficiency and environmental benefits of clean and high-efficiency coal-fired power generation, and offered suggestions for the upgrading of China’s energy system at a lower cost

Government Incentive Contracts for Microgrid Users

Tariff subsidies are beneficial to the further development of the microgrid market. In response to the reduction of the power generation costs of microgrids, the energy storage subsidy for microgrids has become a key factor affecting their further development. Therefore, it is essential to explore and establish a government subsidy mechanism for the energy storage price of microgrids. In this paper, we consider the incentive compatibility constraints and participation constraints of both the government and the microgrid energy storage subsidy. The cases of hidden information and no hidden information are investigated. A microgrid energy storage subsidy model of the incentive compatibility constraint was established to analyze the efficiency of the government subsidy and the microgrid energy storage in the “self-generation + energy storage” mode. The results show that there is an adverse selection problem between the government and energy storage subsidies for microgrid users. In the case of no hidden information, the government can sign different contracts with microgrid users according to their different energy storage efficiency levels. In the case of hidden information, it is better for the government to design a menu of different incentive contracts for microgrid users with different energy storage efficiencies. This approach can ensure that microgrid users with low energy storage efficiency continue to participate in the microgrid construction. Microgrid users with high energy storage efficiency can, thus, better control their costs related to the self-generation, self-use, and surplus electricity transmitted to the grid as well as better select high-regulation carbon dioxide emission reductions and their capacity generation

FedEx and UPS Network Structure and Accessibility Analysis Based on Complex Network Theory

With the expansion of the global air cargo transport system, the operating structure of air cargo has become increasingly separate from passenger counterpart, forming an independent organization model. Despite the Chinese air cargo capacity has grown exponentially in the past, its network is still in its infancy. FedEx and UPS have well-established air cargo networks and have operated effectively on both international and domestic scale; thus, understanding the structure and evolution of their air cargo networks is of a high reference value. In conjunction with the division of US regions from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), this paper refers to FedEx and UPS as FEPS and analyzes its topological structure, complexity properties, and air cargo accessibility by using social network analysis (SNA) and accessibility evaluation methods. The results suggest that (1) the structure of the FEPS air cargo network is in the highly developed states and has the typical “small-world” and “scale-free” network characteristics; (2) the degree centrality values for the nodes in the FEPS network suggest that the network complexity has increased; (3) airports in Memphis (MEM), Louisville (SDF), Indianapolis (IDN), and Ontario (ONT) are the major hubs with both high centrality values and air cargo accessibility; and (4) the FEPS network presents a unique hub-and-spoke structure compared with the passenger counterpart

The influencing factors and spillover effects of interprovincial agricultural carbon emissions in China.

Agricultural carbon emissions have become the constraints of agricultural low-carbon and circular economy development in China. China's agricultural production faces severe pressures and challenges in agricultural carbon reduction. In this paper, we take observation for the 31 provinces in china from 1997 to 2017, to explore the influencing factors and spatial spillover effects of agricultural by estimating spatial panel data models. The results show that China's agricultural carbon emissions will continue to increase in the future, because the growth of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is the main driving force to accelerate the growth of agricultural carbon emissions, but the agricultural input factors will help to reduce the growth of carbon emissions. Moreover, it is proved that economic factors and agricultural input factors have direct effects and spatial spillover effects on agricultural carbon emissions except for agricultural environmental factors. In the short term, strengthening environmental protection may bring some pressure to the economic development of some places, but to achieve high-quality development, we must fundamentally solve the problem of environmental pollution. The conclusion provides important enlightenment and scientific basis for formulating effective policies to curb the growth of CO2 emissions in China

EFFECT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION BIAS MODIFICATION ON DETECTION AND EFFICACY OF SAFETY SIGNALS IN TEST PERFORMANCE

Bachelor'sBACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (HONOURS