A08: Effects of Participation in Sports Clubs Activity on College Students’ Perceived Stress and Well-Being

Purpose: Mandated social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has brought more anxiety and stress to college students. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether college students\u27 participation in sports club activities can reduce anxiety and stress. The secondary purpose was to compare the effects of different types of sport clubs. Methods: The sample consisted of 242 college students (143 males; mean age=22.63 years old) in an academically prestigious university. They were voluntarily enrolled in either team sports clubs, such as volleyball, football, baseball, and softball, etc. (n=96), or individual sports clubs, such as squash, cycling, mountaineering, etc. (n=146). They responded to validated scales to assess perceived stress (Sheldon Cohen, 1983) and well-being (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2009). Self-compiled questionnaires on motivation to join sports clubs and basic information on club organization activities were collected. All surveys were conducted in October 2021. Results: A considerable proportion of students (34.7%) participated in sports clubs to reduce academic pressure. Most of them (72.26%) have already recognized the physical and mental health benefits of physical activity. Significant decreases were observed for perceived stress in both groups: team sports group (ΔM = -0.76, p \u3c 0.01), and individual sports group (ΔM= -0.77, p \u3c 0.01). A significant increase in well-being was observed in two types of courses led by the team sports group (ΔM=1.55, p \u3c 0.01) followed by the individual sports group (ΔM=1.34, p \u3c 0.01). Individual sports clubs have a more pronounced effect on reducing negative emotions than team sports clubs (ΔM = -2.01, p \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: Participation in both team sports clubs and individual sports clubs reduced perceived stress and increased well-being. Individual sports clubs had more decreases in negative emotions compared to team sports clubs

Compatibility of NiO/CuO in Ca‐Cu chemical looping for high‐purity H2 production with CO2 capture

Ca‐Cu chemical looping is a novel and promising approach in converting methane into pure H2 following the principle of sorption‐enhanced reforming. Its operational efficiency is largely determined by an appropriate coexistence of Cu‐based oxygen carriers and Ni‐based catalysts. In this work, NiO/CuO composites were synthesized and their catalytic activity for H2 production was measured using a fixed‐bed reactor system equipped with an online gas analyzer. It is reported for the first time that the presence of CuO could hinder the activity of Ni‐based catalysts in H2 production, and experimental results show that the negative effect of CuO is strengthened with increasing CuO content and calcination temperature during sample preparation. With the help of a series of specific test and characterization techniques (SEM‐EDS, BET, XRD, TPR and XPS), interaction rules between NiO and CuO was further investigated and understood, and based on that an action mechanism model was proposed. Furthermore, an arrangement of mixed particles that avoiding the intimate contact of CuO/NiO was suggested and tested, and a superior performance was demonstrated while observing no restrictions of CuO on Ni‐based catalysts in sorption‐enhanced steam‐methane reforming under the conditions of Ca‐Cu chemical looping

Load-balancing rendezvous approach for mobility-enabled adaptive energy-efficient data collection in WSNs

Copyright © 2020 KSII The tradeoff between energy conservation and traffic balancing is a dilemma problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). By analyzing the intrinsic relationship between cluster properties and long distance transmission energy consumption, we characterize three node sets of the cluster as a theoretical foundation to enhance high performance of WSNs, and propose optimal solutions by introducing rendezvous and Mobile Elements (MEs) to optimize energy consumption for prolonging the lifetime of WSNs. First, we exploit an approximate method based on the transmission distance from the different node to an ME to select suboptimal Rendezvous Point (RP) on the trajectory for ME to collect data. Then, we define data transmission routing sequence and model rendezvous planning for the cluster. In order to achieve optimization of energy consumption, we specifically apply the economic theory called Diminishing Marginal Utility Rule (DMUR) and create the utility function with regard to energy to develop an adaptive energy consumption optimization framework to achieve energy efficiency for data collection. At last, Rendezvous Transmission Algorithm (RTA) is proposed to better tradeoff between energy conservation and traffic balancing. Furthermore, via collaborations among multiple MEs, we design Two-Orbit Back-Propagation Algorithm (TOBPA) which concurrently handles load imbalance phenomenon to improve the efficiency of data collection. The simulation results show that our solutions can improve energy efficiency of the whole network and reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes, which in turn prolong the lifetime of WSNs

The Performance of Polymer Solution Added with Viscosity Stabilizer and the Evaluation of Its Oil Displacement Efficiency in Daqing Oilfield

Aiming at the low viscosity of polymer solution, which is compounded with fresh water but diluted with produced water, and at the problems concerning oil displacement efficiency, an onsite test on polymer solution with viscosity stabilizer (PSVS) is carried out. As a result, it has great and guiding significance to the application and popularization of viscosity stabilizer by studying the performance of polymer solution with viscosity stabilizer and its influence on oil displacement efficiency. In this paper, aiming at two different kinds of polymer solutions among which one is compounded with fresh water but diluted with fresh produced water and the other with aerated produced water, two laboratory evaluative tests concerning viscosity stabilization, anti-shear stability, fluidity, and absorbability of polymer solution as well as its oil displacement efficiency are done. The results of onsite application of PSVS are traced and analyzed. The viscosity stabilization of the polymer solution adding with viscosity stabilizer becomes much better than that of the normal polymer solution. The resistance and the residual resistance factors, the static oil sand adsorption rate and the dynamic core adsorption rate of the solution are all increased markedly. The working viscosity and oil displacement efficiency are improved markedly as well. In comparison with the polymer solution diluted with fresh produced water, the polymer solution diluted with aerated produced water is much better in terms of viscosity stabilization. Comparing with the normal polymer solution with viscosity stabilizer before sheared, the polymer solution which is sheared before adding with viscosity stabilizer performs obviously better in terms of viscosity stability. In contrast to the adjacent block injected with normal polymer solution, the block under onsite flooding test with injection of PSVS features that the average injection pressure increases slightly but keeps steady, the recovery speed of the average monthly water cut of production wells slows down, the thickness of the absorptive layers increases, and the periodic recovery rate improves as well.Key words: Polymer solution; Viscosity stabilizer; Daqing oilfiel

Hydroclimatic variability in loess delta D-wax records from the central Chinese Loess Plateau over the past 250 ka

This study reports hydrogen isotopic records from the central Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) over the past 250 ka. After eliminating the influence of ice and local temperatures, the delta D-wax records extracted from two loess sites at Xifeng and Luochuan can be taken to represent arid/humid alternations in the hydrological environment in this marginal Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) region; they also contain integrated information on summer precipitation patterns and the corresponding responses to these changes by predominant vegetation cover types. These arid/humid alternations show 100 ka, 40 ka and 20 ka cycles. An increase in precipitation in association with an enhanced summer monsoon has historically been taken to be the major factor driving a humid environment in the central CLP. However, hydroclimatic changes in delta D-wax records differ for the central CLP, central China and southern China. Over a 20 ka cycle, the influence of solar insolation on hydroclimatic changes can be shown to be consistent throughout the central CLP. However, changes in the relative location of the land and sea may have caused different hydroclimatic responses between southern China and the central CLP on a glacial-interglacial scale. The hydroclimatic variability in the central CLP would suggest that an enhanced summer monsoon due to climatic warming is the key to understanding decreased drought degree in this marginal monsoonal region

Shaduf++: Non-Cycle and Privacy-Preserving Payment Channel Rebalancing

A leading approach to enhancing the performance and scalability of permissionless blockchains is to use the payment channel, which allows two users to perform off-chain payments with almost unlimited frequency. By linking payment channels together to form a payment channel network, users connected by a path of channels can perform off-chain payments rapidly. However, payment channels risk encountering fund depletion, which threatens the availability of both the payment channel and network. The most recent method needs a cycle-based channel rebalancing procedure, which requires a fair leader and users with rebalancing demands forming directed cycles in the network. Therefore, its large-scale applications are restricted. In this work, we introduce Shaduf, a novel non-cycle off-chain rebalancing protocol that offers a new solution for users to shift coins between channels directly without relying on the cycle setting. Shaduf can be applied to more general rebalancing scenarios. We provide the details of Shaduf and formally prove its security under the Universal Composability framework. Our prototype demonstrates its feasibility and the experimental evaluation shows that Shaduf enhances the Lighting Network performance in payment success ratio and volume. Experimental results also show that our protocol prominently reduces users’ deposits in channels while maintaining the same amount of payments. Moreover, as a privacy enhancement of Shaduf, we propose Shaduf++. Shaduf++ not only retains all the advantages of Shaduf, but also preserves privacy for the rebalancing operations

Analysis of the Global Warming Potential of Biogenic CO2 Emission in Life Cycle Assessments

Biomass is generally believed to be carbon neutral. However, recent studies have challenged the carbon neutrality hypothesis by introducing metric indicators to assess the global warming potential of biogenic CO2 (GWPbio). In this study we calculated the GWPbio factors using a forest growth model and radiative forcing effects with a time horizon of 100 years and applied the factors to five life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies of bioproducts. The forest carbon change was also accounted for in the LCA studies. GWPbio factors ranged from 0.13–0.32, indicating that biomass could be an attractive energy resource when compared with fossil fuels. As expected, short rotation and fast-growing biomass plantations produced low GWPbio. Long-lived wood products also allowed more regrowth of biomass to be accounted as absorption of the CO2 emission from biomass combustion. The LCA case studies showed that the total life cycle GHG emissions were closely related to GWPbio and energy conversion efficiency. By considering the GWPbio factors and the forest carbon change, the production of ethanol and bio-power appeared to have higher GHG emissions than petroleum-derived diesel at the highest GWPbio