Barriers and opportunities for bioenergy expansion in Chinese rural areas

Bioenergy can contribute to the development of a more sustainable environmental friendly alternative in rural areas in China. The perceptions, preferences and awareness concerning bioenergy among farmers are assessed in a systematic study of 594 Chinese farmers in 33 towns in the province of Shaanxi, using a generalized mixed model approach. In addition to the farmer's background and socio-economic variables, the spatial varia-tion in the perceptions is addressed by mapping the residual between-county variation. The overall awareness of bioenergy as a viable alternative is still low (N = 80). Education and preferences on centralized heating sys-tems play the most important role to explain the willingness to use biomass for domestic use or bioenergy from power plants. Users of large amounts of coal and electricity for heating increase the willingness to pay for bioenergy; users of firewood and raw residues are less prone to change their current energy uses. Nearly 75 % of farmers see bioenergy as a promising alternative to current consumption and production patterns of energy. The results show that not only the farmer's profile but the local context concerning energy mix, land uses and socio-economic factors are influencing their views, presenting defined spatial patterns and reflecting local geog-raphies. Over one-third of respondents provide spontaneous recommendations to develop bioenergy markets. The results contribute to a better understanding of farmers' motivations, perceptions and views concerning en-ergy uses, and can be used as an empirical basis for local energy planning towards a more sustainable energy transition in rural areas. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of International Energy Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

AIE-active Ir(iii) complexes functionalised with a cationic Schiff base ligand: synthesis, photophysical properties and applications in photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising cancer treatment method. Traditional small-molecule photosensitizers (PSs) suffer from low intersystem crossing (ISC) ability and aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), which adversely affects the luminous efficiency and singlet oxygen (1O2) yield of PSs in the aggregated state. Ir(III) complexes are promising PSs with long excited-state lifetime, good photophysical and photochemical properties and large Stokes shifts. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics could reduce the nonradiative recombination and improve the ISC ability of excited states through the restriction of the intramolecular motions in aggregated states. Accordingly, two AIE-active Ir(III) complexes Ir-1-N+ and Ir-2-N+ were successfully designed and obtained based on Schiff base ligands. Experimental results showed that Ir-1-N+ and Ir-2-N+ have good photophysical properties and the corresponding nanoparticles (NPs) have good water solubility and 1O2 generation ability. Notably, Ir-2-N+ NPs can be efficiently taken up by mouse breast cancer cells (4T1 cells) with good biocompatibility, low dark toxicity and excellent phototoxicity. This work demonstrates a versatile strategy for exploiting efficient transition metal PSs with a cationic ligand in PDT

Optimization of the Best Polar Site for Antioxidant Activity of Panax ginseng Extract Based on Entropy Weight Method and Grey Relational Analysis Combined with Component Analysis

Objective: The differences in antioxidant activity of different polar parts of panax ginseng were investigated to screen the best active parts. Method: In this study, the water extract of Panax ginseng was extracted by petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol in turn. The contents of total phenolic acids, total saponins, total polysaccharides, total flavonoids, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re and ginsenoside Rb1 in different polar parts were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet-visible (UV) spectrophotometer. The in vitro antioxidant activity of different polar parts was determined by DPPH free radical, ABTS+ free radical, hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion free radical and cell oxidative damage model. Combined with entropy weight method and grey relational analysis, the quality evaluation model of different polar parts of Panax ginseng was established. By weighting twelve quality characteristic indexes of different polar parts of Panax ginseng, the best antioxidant polar part of Panax ginseng was ultimately selected. Results: The differences in the components and antioxidant activity of different polar parts of Panax ginseng were obvious. Among them, the content of total phenolic acid, total flavonoids and ginsenoside Rb1 in n-butanol part was higher than that in other parts. The n-butanol part had the best antioxidant activity, and had certain scavenging ability to DPPH free radical, ABTS+ free radical, hydroxyl radical and superoxide anion free radical, and the corresponding IC50 values were 0.14, 0.57, 0.92 and 0.75 mg/mL, respectively. In addition, combined with the quality evaluation model, the relative correlation degrees of range of different polar parts of Panax ginseng was 0.352~0.618, and the relative correlation degree of n-butanol part was the highest (0.618), which further indicated that the antioxidant activity of n-butanol part was the strongest. Conclusion: Based on the evaluation results of entropy weight method and grey correlation analysis, the n-butanol part was preliminarily selected as the most ideal antioxidant part of Panax ginseng, which would provide a theoretical basis for the research of Panax ginseng as a natural antioxidant and the development and application of Panax ginseng antioxidant food

Robustness in an Ultrasensitive Motor

The bacterial flagellar motor is an ultrasensitive motor. Its output, the probability of the motor turning clockwise, depends sensitively on the occupancy of the protein FliM (a component on the switch complex of the motor) by the input CheY-P molecules. With a limited cellular pool of CheY-P molecules, cell-to-cell variation of the FliM level would lead to large unwanted variation of the motor output if not compensated. Here, we showed that the motor output is robust against the variation of FliM level and identified the adaptive remodeling of the motor switch complex as the mechanism for this robustness.In Escherichia coli, the chemotaxis response regulator CheY-P binds to FliM, a component of the switch complex at the base of the bacterial flagellar motor, to modulate the direction of motor rotation. The bacterial flagellar motor is ultrasensitive to the concentration of unbound CheY-P in the cytoplasm. CheY-P binds to FliM molecules both in the cytoplasm and on the motor. As the concentration of FliM unavoidably varies from cell to cell, leading to a variation of unbound CheY-P concentration in the cytoplasm, this raises the question whether the flagellar motor is robust against this variation, that is, whether the rotational bias of the motor is more or less constant as the concentration of FliM varies. Here, we showed that the motor is robust against variations of the concentration of FliM. We identified adaptive remodeling of the motor as the mechanism for this robustness. As the level of FliM molecules changes, resulting in different amounts of the unbound CheY-P molecules, the motor adaptively changes the composition of its switch complex to compensate for this effect

Landscape Metrics and Land-Use Patterns of Energy Crops in the Agricultural Landscape

Energy crops are a new player in the traditional agricultural landscape. The present paper analyses the land uses surrounding and the spatial characteristics of the main energy crops in Sweden (willow, poplar, hybrid aspen and reed canary grass) compared to traditional agricultural crops during the period 2006-2018. Spatial metrics (number of shape characterising points, shape index and rectangularity ratio) are calculated for each field, as well as the nearby land uses at varying distances, at radius: 500 m, 1000 m, 2000 m and 5000 m. A total of 1560 energy crop fields are studied in the 2006 dataset and 3416 fields in the 2018 dataset, which are compared to 58,246 fields with cereal crops in 2006 and 131,354 fields in the 2018 dataset. Results show that, despite being established on previous agricultural land, energy crops present a different spatial profile compared to traditional agricultural crops. Field shapes present less complexity than before, and the overall spatial features become more regular with time in both cases of energy crops and cereals, suggesting an increasing trend in cost-efficient agricultural practices and planning. Important differences concerning land use diversity at different scales are found between plantations versus grasses. In general, willow plantations are located in agriculture-dominated areas (> 70% at 500 m, > 50% at 2000 m), whereas reed canary grass is in forest-dominated landscapes (> 30% at 500 m, > 60% at 2000 m); both contribute to diversifying existing land uses although with varying effects. The results of this study are a basis to assess the impacts of energy crops at landscape level and can translate into applications in energy policy and planning

Experimental study on the net outdoor airflow ratio in supply air of membrane-based energy recovery ventilator

The total energy recovery ventilator for outdoor air handing plays an important role in reducing energy consumption of the ventilation system. At the same time, the cross infection between fresh air and return air is a direct threat to the safety of energy recovery components with the influence of COVID-19. Therefore, how to improve the total exchange effectiveness and net outdoor air flow ratio in supply air of the heat recovery system has become an urgent problem to be solved. In this study, the composite membrane was prepared by non-woven fabric, siloxaneamide and lithium chloride solution, which was used as the membrane for the heat and mass transfer between fresh air and return air. The variation of the selective permeability of the composite membrane was studied experimentally. The experimental results show that the highest permeance of the composite membrane for the water vapor permeability can reach until 32.5×10-8kg/m2·s·Pa. The net outdoor air flow ratio in supply air is 94% when the air volume is 550m3/h The heat exchange efficiency of the heat recovery device is 63.2% under the conditions of the dry and wet bulb temperatures of return air and outdoor air are 21.2°C/12.9°C and 2.3°C/1.2°C, respectively

An Image Encryption Algorithm Based on Discrete-Time Alternating Quantum Walk and Advanced Encryption Standard

This paper proposes an image encryption scheme based on a discrete-time alternating quantum walk (AQW) and the advanced encryption standard (AES). We use quantum properties to improve the AES algorithm, which uses a keystream generator related to AQW parameters to generate a probability distribution matrix. Some singular values of the matrix are extracted as the key to the AES algorithm. The Rcon of the AES algorithm is replaced with the elements of the probability distribution matrix. Then, the ascending order of the size of the clone probability distribution matrix scrambles the mapping rules of the S-box and ShiftRow transformations in the AES algorithm. The algorithm uses a probability distribution matrix and plaintext XOR operation to complete the preprocessing and uses the modified AES algorithm to complete the encryption process. The technology is based on simulation verification, including pixel correlation, histograms, differential attacks, noise attacks, information entropy, key sensitivity, and space. The results demonstrate a remarkable encryption effect. Compared with other improved AES algorithms, this algorithm has the advantages of the original AES algorithm and improves the ability to resist correlation attacks

Joint Resource Optimization in Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) Enabled Multi-Relay Internet of Things (IoT) System

The internet of things (IoT) is becoming more indispensable in modern society as the further development and maturity of information technology progresses. However the exponential growth of IoT devices leads to severe energy consumption. As a technology with broad application prospects, simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) enables IoT devices to harvest energy from receiving radio frequency (RF) signals while ensuring information transmission. In this paper, we investigate the transmission rate optimization problem for a dual-hop multi-relay IoT system, where a decode-and-forward (DF) relay supports the SWIPT technique. We jointly optimize the resource including power and subcarrier allocation, to maximize the system transmission rate. The time-sharing strategy and Lagrange dual method are used to solve this optimization problem. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm has a larger transmission rate than other benchmark algorithms when ensuring each relay has no additional energy supply. Specifically, the proposed algorithm improves the information transmission rate by 2.8%, 3.4% and 43% compared with other algorithms in the case of five relays when the source’s power is equal to 0.5 W, respectively

Antimony exposure promotes bladder tumor cell growth by inhibiting PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy

Antimony is one of the heavier pnictogens and is widely found in human food chains, water sources, and as an air pollutant. Recent years have seen steadily increasing concentrations of antimony in the ecological environment; critically, several studies have indicated that antimony might pose a tumorigenic risk factor in several cancers. Therefore, antimony toxicity has attracted increasing research attention, with the molecular mechanisms underlying suspected antimony-mediated tumor transformation of greatest interest. Our results showed that the serum concentration of antimony was higher in bladder tumor patients relative to levels in non-tumor patients. Moreover, that such high antimony serum concentration were closely associated with poorer outcome in bladder tumor patients. Additionally, we demonstrated that the presence of antimony promoted both in vitro and in vivo bladder tumor cell growth. Our results also indicated that low-dose antimony resulted in significantly decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, mitochondrial respiratory enzyme complex I/II/III/IV activity, ATP/ADP ratio, and ATP concentration relative to the control group. These findings suggested that antimony caused mitochondrial damage. Finally, we found that low-dose antimony(0.8uM) inhibited mitophagy by deregulating expression of PINK1, Parkin, and p(ser65)-Parkin, and activation of PINK1-Parkin pathway by CCCP could inhibit antimony-induced tumor cell growth. Collectively, this inhibited the proliferation of bladder tumor cells. Overall, our study suggested that antimony promoted bladder tumor cell growth by inhibiting PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential in targeting molecules within this antimony induced-PINK1/Parkin signaling pathway and may offer a new approach for the treatment of bladder cancer

Implications of ferroptosis in silver nanoparticle-induced cytotoxicity of macrophages

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in daily life and commercial activities owing to their unique physicochemical properties. Consequently, there is an increasing risk of daily and occupational exposure to metal NPs, which raises concerns regarding their health hazards. Programmed cell deaths (PCDs) have been clarified to be involved in metal NP-induced cytotoxicity, including apoptosis, autophagy, and pyroptosis. However, whether and how ferroptosis, a newly recognized PCD, contributes to metal NP-induced cell death remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the ferroptotic effects of two representative metal NPs, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), on macrophages in vitro. Our results revealed that AgNPs, rather than AuNPs, induced non-apoptotic PCD, accompanied by lipid peroxidation and iron homeostasis disorders, which are two hallmarks of ferroptosis, in macrophages. Treatment with a ferroptosis inhibitor (ferrostatin-1) and iron chelator (deferoxamine) reversed AgNP-induced PCD, corroborating the induction of ferroptosis upon exposure to AgNPs. Moreover, our results revealed that smaller AgNPs elicited greater ferroptotic effects on macrophages than larger ones. Importantly, ferroptosis in AgNP-treated macrophages was mainly triggered by AgNPs per se rather than by Ag ions. Overall, our study highlights the ferroptotic effects elicited by AgNPs in macrophages, which will promote the understanding of their cytotoxic effects and facilitate the safer design of metal nanoproducts