Waste cooking oil as an energy resource: review of Chinese policies

Converting waste cooking oil into biofuel represents a three-win solution, dealing simultaneously with food security, pollution, and energy security. In this paper, we encode the policy documents of waste cooking oil refining biofuel in China based on content analysis, and explore the related policies from the two dimensions as basic policy tools and enterprises supply chain. Research indicates the weak institution coordination of policy issuing entities. Also, the findings show that tools of regulatory control and goal planning are overused. Policies of government procurement, outsourcing and biofuel consumption are relatively scarce. Generally, government focuses more on formulating policies from the strategic, administrative and regulatory aspects, while less on market-oriented initiatives as funding input and financial support

Fault feature extraction for rolling element bearings based on multi-scale morphological filter and frequency-weighted energy operator

In order to extract impulse components from bearing vibration signals with strong background noise, a fault feature extraction method based on multi-scale average combination difference morphological filter and Frequency-Weighted Energy Operator is proposed in this paper. The average combination difference morphological filter (ACDIF) is used to enhance the positive and negative impulse components in the signal. The double-dot structure element (SE) is used instead of zero amplitude flat SE to improve the effectiveness of fault feature extraction. The weight coefficients of the filtered results at different scales in multi-scale ACDIF are adaptively determined by an optimization algorithm called hybrid particle swarm optimizer with sine cosine acceleration coefficients (H-PSO-SCAC). At last, as the Frequency-Weighted Energy Operator (FWEO) outperforms the enveloping method in detecting impulse components of signals, the filtered signal is processed by FWEO to extract the fault features of bearings. Results on simulation and experimental bearing vibration signals show that the proposed method can effectively suppress noise and extract the fault features from bearing vibration signals

Creating a Long-Term Diabetic Rabbit Model

This study was to create a long-term rabbit model of diabetes mellitus for medical studies of up to one year or longer and to evaluate the effects of chronic hyperglycemia on damage of major organs. A single dose of alloxan monohydrate (100 mg/kg) was given intravenously to 20 young New Zealand White rabbits. Another 12 age-matched normal rabbits were used as controls. Hyperglycemia developed within 48 hours after treatment with alloxan. Insulin was given daily after diabetes developed. All animals gained some body weight, but the gain was much less than the age-matched nondiabetic rabbits. Hyperlipidemia, higher blood urea nitrogen and creatinine were found in the diabetic animals. Histologically, the pancreas showed marked beta cell damage. The kidneys showed significantly thickened afferent glomerular arterioles with narrowed lumens along with glomerular atrophy. Lipid accumulation in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes appeared as vacuoles. Full-thickness skin wound healing was delayed. In summary, with careful management, alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits can be maintained for one year or longer in reasonably good health for diabetic studies

Metabolic Profiling Study of Yang Deficiency Syndrome in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by H

This study proposes a 1H NMR-based metabonomic approach to explore the biochemical characteristics of Yang deficiency syndrome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on serum metabolic profiling. Serum samples from 21 cases of Yang deficiency syndrome HCC patients (YDS-HCC) and 21 cases of non-Yang deficiency syndrome HCC patients (NYDS-HCC) were analyzed using 1H NMR spectroscopy and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was applied to visualize the variation patterns in metabolic profiling of sera from different groups. The differential metabolites were identified and the biochemical characteristics were analyzed. We found that the intensities of six metabolites (LDL/VLDL, isoleucine, lactate, lipids, choline, and glucose/sugars) in serum of Yang deficiency syndrome patients were lower than those of non-Yang deficiency syndrome patients. It implies that multiple metabolisms, mainly including lipid, amino acid, and energy metabolisms, are unbalanced or weakened in Yang deficiency syndrome patients with HCC. The decreased intensities of metabolites including LDL/VLDL, isoleucine, lactate, lipids, choline, and glucose/sugars in serum may be the distinctive metabolic variations of Yang deficiency syndrome patients with HCC. And these metabolites may be potential biomarkers for diagnosis of Yang deficiency syndrome in HCC

The Main Progress of Perovskite Solar Cells in 2020–2021

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) emerging as a promising photovoltaic technology with high efficiency and low manufacturing cost have attracted the attention from all over the world. Both the efficiency and stability of PSCs have increased steadily in recent years, and the research on reducing lead leakage and developing eco-friendly lead-free perovskites pushes forward the commercialization of PSCs step by step. This review summarizes the main progress of PSCs in 2020 and 2021 from the aspects of efficiency, stability, perovskite-based tandem devices, and lead-free PSCs. Moreover, a brief discussion on the development of PSC modules and its challenges toward practical application is provided

Carcinogenicity of cobalt, antimony compounds, and weapons-grade tungsten alloy

The complete evaluation of the carcinogenicity of cobalt, antimony compounds, and weapons-grade tungsten alloy will be published in Volume 131 of the IARC Monographs.[Excerpt] In March, 2022, a Working Group of 31 scientists from 13 countries met remotely at the invitation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to finalise their evaluation of the carcinogenicity of nine agents: cobalt metal (without tungsten carbide or other metal alloys), soluble cobalt(II) salts, cobalt(II) oxide, cobalt(II,III) oxide, cobalt(II) sulfide, other cobalt(II) compounds, trivalent antimony, pentavalent antimony, and weapons-grade tungsten (with nickel and cobalt) alloy. For cobalt metal and the cobalt compounds, particles of all sizes were included in the evaluation. These assessments will be published in Volume 131 of the IARC Monographs.1 Cobalt metal and soluble cobalt(II) salts were classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) based on “sufficient” evidence for cancer in experimental animals and “strong” mechanistic evidence in human primary cells. Cobalt(II) oxide and weapons-grade tungsten alloy were classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B) based on “sufficient” evidence in experimental animals. Trivalent antimony was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A), based on “limited” evidence for cancer in humans, “sufficient” evidence for cancer in experimental animals, and “strong” mechanistic evidence in human primary cells and in experimental systems. Cobalt(II,III) oxide, cobalt(II) sulfide, other cobalt(II) compounds, and pentavalent antimony were each evaluated as “not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans” (Group 3).[...

MMP-3-mediated cleavage of OPN is involved in copper oxide nanoparticle-induced activation of fibroblasts

Abstract Background Copper oxide nanoparticles (Nano-CuO) are one of the most produced and used nanomaterials. Previous studies have shown that exposure to Nano-CuO caused acute lung injury, inflammation, and fibrosis. However, the mechanisms underlying Nano-CuO-induced lung fibrosis are still unclear. Here, we hypothesized that exposure of human lung epithelial cells and macrophages to Nano-CuO would upregulate MMP-3, which cleaved osteopontin (OPN), resulting in fibroblast activation and lung fibrosis. Methods A triple co-culture model was established to explore the mechanisms underlying Nano-CuO-induced fibroblast activation. Cytotoxicity of Nano-CuO on BEAS-2B, U937* macrophages, and MRC-5 fibroblasts were determined by alamarBlue and MTS assays. The expression or activity of MMP-3, OPN, and fibrosis-associated proteins was determined by Western blot or zymography assay. Migration of MRC-5 fibroblasts was evaluated by wound healing assay. MMP-3 siRNA and an RGD-containing peptide, GRGDSP, were used to explore the role of MMP-3 and cleaved OPN in fibroblast activation. Results Exposure to non-cytotoxic doses of Nano-CuO (0.5 and 1 µg/mL) caused increased expression and activity of MMP-3 in the conditioned media of BEAS-2B and U937* cells, but not MRC-5 fibroblasts. Nano-CuO exposure also caused increased production of cleaved OPN fragments, which was abolished by MMP-3 siRNA transfection. Conditioned media from Nano-CuO-exposed BEAS-2B, U937*, or the co-culture of BEAS-2B and U937* caused activation of unexposed MRC-5 fibroblasts. However, direct exposure of MRC-5 fibroblasts to Nano-CuO did not induce their activation. In a triple co-culture system, exposure of BEAS-2B and U937* cells to Nano-CuO caused activation of unexposed MRC-5 fibroblasts, while transfection of MMP-3 siRNA in BEAS-2B and U937* cells significantly inhibited the activation and migration of MRC-5 fibroblasts. In addition, pretreatment with GRGDSP peptide inhibited Nano-CuO-induced activation and migration of MRC-5 fibroblasts in the triple co-culture system. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that Nano-CuO exposure caused increased production of MMP-3 from lung epithelial BEAS-2B cells and U937* macrophages, which cleaved OPN, resulting in the activation of lung fibroblasts MRC-5. These results suggest that MMP-3-cleaved OPN may play a key role in Nano-CuO-induced activation of lung fibroblasts. More investigations are needed to confirm whether these effects are due to the nanoparticles themselves and/or Cu ions

Hypoxia-responsive drug-drug conjugated nanoparticles for breast cancer synergistic therapy

In order to eliminate tumors, it is necessary to kill differentiated cancer cells, cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the "vascular niche" synergistically. Although nanoparticles (NPs) have been used to deliver drugs to the action sites, inert materials with high toxicity may reduce the drug loading content and cause side-effects to kidneys and other organs in the course of degradation and excretion. Here, we report hypoxia-responsive drug-drug conjugated NPs to deliver three drugs to kill differentiated cancer cells, CSCs and the "vascular niche" synergistically, which could selectively release the drugs to treat cells in hypoxic tumors. For this purpose, an azobenzene (AZO) bond imparting hypoxia sensitivity and specificity as a crosslinker conjugated hydrophobic combretastatin A-4 (CA4) with hydrophilic irinotecan (IR) to form IR-AZO-CA4 amphiphilic molecules. These molecules self-assembled into NPs, which could encapsulate hydrophobic anti-CSCs drug cyclopamine (CP). The drug-drug conjugated NPs had high drug loading content. As expected, the AZO linker could be broken under hypoxia conditions and the NPs were disassembled to release drugs quickly. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) results indicated that the IR-AZO-CA4/CP NPs could enhance the cellular uptake of drugs and the permeability of drugs to the inner of CSCs, beneficial for tumor therapy. Furthermore, the IR-AZO-CA4/CP NPs could inhibit the migration, invasion and mammosphere formation capacity of CSCs. More importantly, only IR-AZO-CA4/CP NPs could simultaneously inhibit differentiated cancer cells, CSCs and endothelial cells without interference on the cell under a normoxic environment. The present study suggests that the IR-AZO-CA4/CP NPs provide a promising therapeutic approach for anticancer treatment

The Improvement of DV-Hop Model and Its Application in the Security Performance of Smart Campus

In the smart campus, sensors are the basic units in the whole the Internet of Things structure, which play the role of collecting information and transmitting it. How to transmits more information at a certain power level has attracted the attention of many researchers. In this paper, the DV-Hop algorithm is optimized by combining simulated annealing-interference particle swarm optimization algorithm to improve the node localization of wireless sensor networks and enhance the security performance of smart campus. To address the problem that particle swarm optimization easily falls into local optimum, a perturbation mechanism is introduced in the basic particle swarm optimization algorithm. Meanwhile, the acceptance probability P is introduced in the simulated annealing algorithm to determine whether a particle is accepted when it “flies” to a new position, which improves the probability of finding a global optimal solution. Comparing the average localization error and optimization rate of the DV-Hop algorithm, PSO-DV-Hop algorithm, and the optimized algorithm. The results show a greater advantage of the algorithm. This will greatly enhance the safety performance and efficiency of the smart campus