Greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. crude oil pipeline accidents:1968 to 2020

Abstract Crude oil pipelines are considered as the lifelines of energy industry. However, accidents of the pipelines can lead to severe public health and environmental concerns, in which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily methane, are frequently overlooked. While previous studies examined fugitive emissions in normal operation of crude oil pipelines, emissions resulting from accidents were typically managed separately and were therefore not included in the emission account of oil systems. To bridge this knowledge gap, we employed a bottom-up approach to conducted the first-ever inventory of GHG emissions resulting from crude oil pipeline accidents in the United States at the state level from 1968 to 2020, and leveraged Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the associated uncertainties. Our results reveal that GHG emissions from accidents in gathering pipelines (~720,000 tCO2e) exceed those from transmission pipelines (~290,000 tCO2e), although significantly more accidents have occurred in transmission pipelines (6883 cases) than gathering pipelines (773 cases). Texas accounted for over 40% of total accident-related GHG emissions nationwide. Our study contributes to enhanced accuracy of the GHG account associated with crude oil transport and implementing the data-driven climate mitigation strategies

Site-specific Forest-assembly of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes on Electron-beam Patterned SiOx/Si Substrates

Based on electron-beam direct writing on the SiOx/Si substrates, favorable absorption sites for ferric cations (Fe3+ ions) were created on the surface oxide layer. This allowed Fe3+-assisted self-assembled arrays of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) probes to be produced. Auger investigation indicated that the incident energetic electrons depleted oxygen, creating more dangling bonds around Si atoms at the surface of the SiOx layer. This resulted in a distinct difference in the friction forces from unexposed regions as measured by lateral force microscopy (LFM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) affirmed that the irradiated domains absorbed considerably more Fe3+ ions upon immersion into pH 2.2 aqueous FeCl3 solution. This rendered a greater yield of FeO(OH)/FeOCl precipitates, primarily FeO(OH), upon subsequent washing with lightly basic dimethylformamide (DMF) solution. Such selective metalfunctionalization established the basis for the subsequent patterned forest-assembly of SWNTs as demonstrated by resonance Raman spectroscopy

Performance of feeding Artemia with bioflocs derived from two types of fish solid waste

The production of bioflocs with the solid waste from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and feeding Artemia results in additional nutrient retention and lowers waste discharged from RAS. The solid waste from the drum-filters of two RAS, which stocked European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), was used as substrate to produce bioflocs in suspended growth reactors, referred to as E-flocs and T-flocs, respectively. Mono-diets consisting of 100% E-flocs and 100% T-flocs were added to culture Artemia, referred as E-Artemia and T-Artemia, respectively, in a laboratory scale test. The efficiency of this feeding regime was investigated. A significant difference was observed in terms of crude protein content (35.59 ± 0.2%) for E-flocs, (29.29 ± 0.95)% for T-flocs, (70.01 ± 0.92)% for E-Artemia and (65.63 ± 0.89)% for T-Artemia. 134 out of the total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were present in E-flocs and T-flocs from the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data. Most of the shared OTUs belonged to cyanobacteria. C18:1n7 of T-flocs was higher than that of E-flocs (P 0.05). The survival rate of E-Artemia was (22 ± 0.02) %, significantly higher than that of T-Artemia (16% ± 0.02%) (P 0.05). The EPA of Artemia fed with E-flocs was (3.00 ± 0.46)%, significantly higher than that of T-Artemia (1.57 ± 0.19%) (P < 0.05). This study offers a method for reusing the aquaculture waste, which will be helpful to achieve a zero-pollution discharge for aquaculture systems. Keywords: Bioflocs, Fish waste, Artemia, Recirculating aquaculture system, Suspended growth reactor

Study of Burden in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome at Global, Regional, and National Levels from 1990 to 2019

Increasing attention has recently been paid to the harm of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) to women. However, due to the inconsistency of global clinical diagnostic standards and the differing allocation of medical resources among different regions, there is a lack of comprehensive estimation of the global incidence and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of PCOS. Thus, it is difficult to assess the disease burden. We extracted PCOS disease data from 1990 to 2019 from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019 and estimated the incidence, DALYs, and the corresponding age-standardized rates (ASRs) of PCOS, as well as the socio-demographic index (SDI) quintiles, to describe epidemiological trends at the global level, encompassing 21 regions and 204 countries and territories. Globally, the incidence and DALYs of PCOS have increased. Its ASR also shows an increasing trend. Among them, the high SDI quintile seems relatively stable, whereas other SDI quintiles are constantly rising over time. Our research has provided clues regarding the disease pattern and epidemic trend of PCOS and analyzed the possible causes of disease burden in some specific countries and territories, which may have some value in health resource allocation and health policy formulation and prevention strategies

Effects of Laser Treatment of Terbium-Doped Indium Oxide Thin Films and Transistors

In this study, a KrF excimer laser with a high-absorption coefficient in metal oxide films and a wavelength of 248 nm was selected for the post-processing of a film and metal oxide thin film transistor (MOTFT). Due to the poor negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) stability of indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistor (IGZO-TFT) devices, terbium-doped Tb:In2O3 material was selected as the target of this study. The XPS test revealed the presence of both Tb3+ and Tb4+ ions in the Tb:In2O3 film. It was hypothesized that the peak of the laser thermal effect was reduced and the action time was prolonged by the f-f jump of Tb3+ ions and the C-T jump of Tb4+ ions during the laser treatment. Studies related to the treatment of Tb:In2O3 films with different laser energy densities have been carried out. It is shown that as the laser energy density increases, the film density increases, the thickness decreases, the carrier concentration increases, and the optical band gap widens. Terbium has a low electronegativity (1.1 eV) and a high Tb-O dissociation energy (707 kJ/mol), which brings about a large lattice distortion. The Tb:In2O3 films did not show significant crystallization even under laser energy density treatment of up to 250 mJ/cm2. Compared with pure In2O3-TFT, the doping of Tb ions effectively reduces the off-state current (1.16 × 10−11 A vs. 1.66 × 10−12 A), improves the switching current ratio (1.63 × 106 vs. 1.34 × 107) and improves the NBIS stability (ΔVON = −10.4 V vs. 6.4 V) and positive bias illumination stress (PBIS) stability (ΔVON = 8 V vs. 1.6 V)

Multi-center evaluation of machine learning-based radiomic model in predicting disease free survival and adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in stage II colorectal cancer patients

Abstract Background Our study aimed to explore the potential of radiomics features derived from CT images in predicting the prognosis and response to adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) in patients with Stage II colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods A total of 478 patients with confirmed stage II CRC, with 313 from Shanghai (Training set) and 165 from Beijing (Validation set) were enrolled. Optimized features were selected using GridSearchCV and Iterative Feature Elimination (IFE) algorithm. Subsequently, we developed an ensemble random forest classifier to predict the probability of disease relapse.We evaluated the performance of the model using the concordance index (C-index), precision-recall curves, and area under the precision-recall curves (AUCPR). Results A radiomic model (namely the RF5 model) consisting of four radiomics features and T stage were developed. The RF5 model performed better than simple radiomics features or T stage alone, with higher C-index and AUCPR, as well as better sensitivity and specificity (C-indexRF5: 0.836; AUCPR = 0.711; Sensitivity = 0.610; Specificity = 0.935). We identified an optimal cutoff value of 0.1215 to split patients into high- or low-score subgroups, with those in the low-score group having better disease-free survival (DFS) (Training Set: P = 1.4e-11; Validation Set: P = 0.015). Furthermore, patients in the high-score group who received ACT had better DFS compared to those who did not receive ACT (P = 0.04). However, no statistical difference was found in low-score patients (P = 0.17). Conclusion The radiomic model can serve as a reliable tool for assessing prognosis and identifying the optimal candidates for ACT in Stage II CRC patients. Trial registration Retrospectively registered

Cathelicidin peptide analogues inhibit EV71 infection through blocking viral entry and uncoating.

Given the serious neurological complications and deaths associated with enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection, there is an urgent need to develop effective antivirals against this viral infection. In this study, we demonstrated that two Cathelicidin-derived peptides, LL-18 and FF-18 were more potent against EV71 infection than the parent peptide LL-37, which is the mature and processed form of Cathelicidin. These peptides could directly bind to the EV71 virus particles, but not to coxsackievirus, indicative of their high specificity. The binding of peptides with the virus surface occupied the viral canyon region in a way that could block virus-receptor interactions and inhibit viral uncoating. In addition, these peptide analogues could also relieve the deleterious effect of EV71 infection in vivo. Therefore, Cathelicidin-derived peptides might be excellent candidates for further development of antivirals to treat EV71 infection

Orange-derived extracellular vesicles nanodrugs for efficient treatment of ovarian cancer assisted by transcytosis effect

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have recently received much attention about the application of drug carriers due to their desirable properties such as nano-size, biocompatibility, and high stability. Herein, we demonstrate orange-derived extracellular vesicles (OEV) nanodrugs (DN@OEV) by modifying cRGD-targeted doxorubicin (DOX) nanoparticles (DN) onto the surface of OEV, enabling significantly enhancing tumor accumulation and penetration, thereby efficiently inhibiting the growth of ovarian cancer. The obtained DN@OEV enabled to inducement of greater transcytosis capability in ovarian cancer cells, which presented the average above 10-fold transcytosis effect compared with individual DN. It was found that DN@OEV could trigger receptor-mediated endocytosis to promote early endosome/recycling endosomes pathway for exocytosis and simultaneously reduce degradation in the early endosomes-late endosomes-lysosome pathway, thereby inducing the enhanced transcytosis. In particular, the zombie mouse model bearing orthotopic ovarian cancer further validated DN@OEV presented high accumulation and penetration in tumor tissue by the transcytosis process. Our study indicated the strategy in enhancing transcytosis has significant implications for improving the therapeutic efficacy of the drug delivery system

LL-18 did not induce virus resistance.

(A) Diagram of resistance induction assay. (B) RD cells infected with parental EV71 or P30 with or without 1.5 μM LL-18 pre-incubation were tested for cell viability 24 h.p.i. ns, not significant; ***, P<0.001.</p