Land-use change simulation and assessment of driving factors in the loess hilly region - a case study as Pengyang County

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the land-use change and its relationship with its driving factors in the loess hilly region. In this study, a case study was carried out in Pengyang County. We set two land-use demand scenarios (a baseline scenario (scenario 1) and a real land-use requirement scenario (scenario 2)) during year 2001-2005 via assuming the effect of driving factors on land-use change keeps stable from 1993 to 2005. Two simulated land-use patterns of 2005 are therefore achieved accordingly by use of the conversion of land use and its effects model at small regional extent. Kappa analyses are conducted to compare each simulated land-use pattern with the reality. Results show that (1) the associated kappa values were decreased from 0.83 in 1993-2000 to 0.27 (in scenario 1) and 0.23 (in scenario 2) in 2001-2005 and (2) forest and grassland were the land-use types with highest commission errors, which implies that conversion of both the land-use types mentioned above is the main determinant of change of kappa values. Our study indicates the land-use change was driven by the synthetic multiply factors including natural and social-economic factors (e.g., slope, aspect, elevation, distance to road, soil types, and population dense) in 1993-2000 until "Grain for Green Project" was implemented and has become the dominant factor in 2001-2005

Design and Development of High-Performance Solid Electrolyte for All-Solid-State Lithium Ion Batteries

All SOlid-state Lithium Ion Batteries (ALSOLIBs) offering high energy density and power density are considered as one of the next generation electrochemical energy storage technologies. It is in urgent need to develop high-performance solid electrolytes (SEs), which is the key component of ALSOLIBs, satisfying the requirements in multiple categories of properties, including high ionic conductivity at ambient temperature, good chemical and electrochemical stability, and good mechanical durability. Among various type of SEs, sulfide and halide electrolytes show promising ionic conductivity and favorable synthesizability, which are beneficial for the ALSOLIBs fabrication. In this work, the structural factors such as polarizability of anions framework, anions disordering, Li ions sublattice have been tuned through various Li ionic conductor systems and their influences on ionic conductivity were systematically studied. We believe this work is beneficial to advance the mechanistic understanding of Li ion diffusion behavior in sulfide and halide SEs to pave the way towards high performance ALSOLIBs.Ph.D

AutoPET Challenge 2022: Step-by-Step Lesion Segmentation in Whole-body FDG-PET/CT

Automatic segmentation of tumor lesions is a critical initial processing step for quantitative PET/CT analysis. However, numerous tumor lesions with different shapes, sizes, and uptake intensity may be distributed in different anatomical contexts throughout the body, and there is also significant uptake in healthy organs. Therefore, building a systemic PET/CT tumor lesion segmentation model is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a novel step-by-step 3D segmentation method to address this problem. We achieved Dice score of 0.92, false positive volume of 0.89 and false negative volume of 0.53 on preliminary test set.The code of our work is available on the following link: https://github.com/rightl/autopet.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2209.0121

Characteristics and driving factors of fluoride in groundwater in different urban functional area of Lanzhou city

High-fluorine groundwater is a potential threat to ecological environment and human health. The source and distribution of fluoride in groundwater in urbanized areas are complicated due to the double influence of geological background and human activities. It is of great significance to identify the characteristics of fluorine in groundwater to ensure the safety of groundwater.This study analyzed the environmental characteristics and main hydrogeochemical processes of high-fluorine groundwater in different urban functional areas of Lanzhou city, the largest industrial city in the arid region of Northwest China, based on the mathematical statistics, ion ratios and saturation index analysis. Then the influence of human activities on the migration and enrichment of fluoride was revealed. The results show that the ρ(F−) in the groundwater in the study area ranges from 0 to 4.8 mg/L, and 13 high-fluoride water samples exceeded the standard of groundwater quality Class III (1.0 mg/L), with an excess rate of 20.3%. Under the influence of intensity of human activity and sources of human input, the distribution characteristics of fluorine in groundwater in different urban functional areas are prominently different. The fluorine content of groundwater in the Xigu Petrochemical Industrial Zone is the highest, with the 47.4% of high-fluorine groundwater. While in commercial residential areas and new urban areas the fluorine content is relatively low, with the 7.1% and 9.7% of high-fluorine groundwater, respectively. The high-fluorine groundwater in the study area is mainly SO4•Cl—Na and Cl•SO4—Na type water, which is low in calcium, rich in sodium and weak in alkalinity. The dissolution of fluorinated minerals, precipitation/dissolution of calcite and dolomite, cation exchange between calcium and sodium on the surface of clay minerals, strong evaporation and salt effect are the main hydrogeochemical processes of fluoride enrichment in groundwater in the study area. Urbanization and industrialization lead to the further deterioration of natural high fluorine water, the industrial wastewater leakage from petrochemical leads to the further dissolution of fluoride in the formation, which is an important driving force for the enrichment of high fluorine groundwater in the Xigu Industrial Zone. The study provides basic information for the fluoride migration and enrichment in the high fluoride background area with human activities

Effectiveness of brief mindfulness intervention for college students' problematic smartphone use: The mediating role of self-control.

BackgroundMainland China has the most smartphone users worldwide, especially among college students, while mindfulness intervention can significantly alleviate the level of problematic smartphone use. We examined the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on problematic smartphone use and investigated if this effect is mediated by self-control.MethodsParticipants were recruited randomly from a university in Beijing of China. Forty-four college students were assigned to a mindfulness group or a control group. The mindfulness group took part in a brief (30 min) single-session mindfulness intervention. The control group was instructed to listen to a neutral news audio recording for the same duration (30 min). The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale, and Self-control Scale were used to measure state mindfulness, problematic smartphone use, and self-control of college students at pre-intervention and post-intervention, respectively.ResultsTwo-way repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that the mindfulness group had significant improvements in state mindfulness (p = .049) and self-control (p = .012), and had significant alleviation in problematic smartphone use (p ConclusionsA brief single-session mindfulness intervention can alleviate the level of problematic smartphone use and increase the level of state mindfulness and self-control compared to the control group. Self-control can completely mediate the efficacy of the mindfulness intervention in reducing problematic smartphone use

The Demulsification Properties of Cationic Hyperbranched Polyamidoamines for Polymer Flooding Emulsions and Microemulsions

Polymer flooding emulsions and microemulsions caused by tertiary oil recovery technologies are harmful to the environment due to their excellent stability. Two cationic hyperbranched polyamidoamines (H-PAMAM), named as H-PAMAM-HA and H-PAMAM-ETA, were obtained by changing the terminal denotation agents to H-PAMAM, which was characterized by 1H NMR, FT-IR, and amine possession, thereby confirmed the modification. Samples (300 mg/L) were added to the polymer flooding emulsion (1500 mg/L oil concentration) at 30 °C for 30 min and the H-PAMAM-HA and H-PAMAM-ETA were shown to perform at 88% and 91% deoil efficiency. Additionally, the increased settling time and the raised temperature enhanced performance. For example, an oil removal ratio of 97.7% was observed after dealing with the emulsion for 30 min at 60 °C, while 98.5% deoil efficiency was obtained after 90 min at 45 °C for the 300 mg/L H-PAMAM-ETA. To determine the differences when dealing with the emulsion, the interfacial tension, ζ potential, and turbidity measurements were fully estimated. Moreover, diametrically different demulsification mechanisms were found when the samples were utilized to treat the microemulsion. The modified demulsifiers showed excellent demulsification efficiency via their obvious electroneutralization and bridge functions, while the H-PAMAM appeared to enhance the stability of the microemulsion

Possibility of Using By-Products with High NDF Content to Alter the Fecal Short Chain Fatty Acid Profiles, Bacterial Community, and Digestibility of Lactating Dairy Cows

This study aimed to investigate whether agricultural by-products with a high NDF content and small-particle-size substitute for forage could cause hindgut acidosis and dysbacteriosis in lactating dairy cows. We investigated the impact of soybean hull and beet pulp on the fecal fermentation, bacterial community, and digestibility of cows. Sixteen lactating Holstein cows were treated as follows (% of dry matter (DM)): amount of by-product added was 0 (control, CON), 1.67% (low by-products, LB), 3.33% (medium by-products, MB), and 5% (high by-products, HB). The results showed the fecal pH of cows to be 7.23–7.29, implying no hindgut acidosis. With increased inclusion of by-products in the diets, the proportion of fecal propionate; relative abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes, the family Lachnospiraceae, and genera unclassified_f_Lachnospiraceae, Acetitomaculum, and Prevotella; and the DM and NDF digestibility of cows all increased linearly. Meanwhile, the fecal genera Turicibacter and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 decreased linearly. By-products promoted the abundance of fecal bacteria genes related to energy metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and propanoate metabolism; and correlations between fecal short chain fatty acids, digestibility, and the bacteria genera were seen. Overall, our study suggested that adding 5% by-products could be a viable dietary formulation strategy that promotes digestibility and makes positive changes in hindgut fermentation and bacteria

Effect of Unsaturated Fatty Acid Ratio In Vitro on Rumen Fermentation, Methane Concentration, and Microbial Profile

It is well known that dairy cows are fed diets with high fat content, which can adversely affect rumen fermentation. However, whether the effects of high fat content on rumen fermentation are related to the composition of fatty acids (FA) is for further study. We explored the effects of unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) ratios in vitro on rumen, methane concentration and microbial composition under the same fat levels. The experiment included a low-unsaturated group (LU, UFA proportion: 42.8%), a medium-unsaturated group (MU, UFA proportion: 56.9%), and a high-unsaturated group (HU, UFA proportion: 70.9%). The incubation fluid pH and NH3-N levels were not significantly different in the three groups. Total volatile fatty acid (TVFA), acetate, propionate, butyrate, and valerate in the MU group had a decreased trend compared to the LU group (0.05 < p < 0.1), and no difference was found in other volatile fatty acids (VFAs) among the three groups. Furthermore, gas production kinetic parameters among the three groups did not differ significantly. The LU group’s CH4 concentration was significantly higher than the HU group (p < 0.05). The CO2 concentration in the LU group was also significantly higher than the MU and LU groups (p < 0.05). Additionally, 16S rRNA microbial sequencing results showed that the Shannon diversity value significantly increased in the MU group (p < 0.05) compared to the LU group. Other alpha diversity indices (Chao 1, observed species, and ACE) did not differ among the three groups. The increased proportion of UFA significantly decreased the relative abundance of Succinivibrionaceae_UCG_001 and Fibrobacter (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the multiple Lachnospiraceae bacteria significantly increased in the MU group (p < 0.05). Overall, our findings indicated that the microbial community in the incubation system could be affected by elevating proportions of UFA, affecting the yield of VFA, whereas the CH4 concentration was reduced