The comprehensive environmental efficiency of socioeconomic sectors in China: An analysis based on a non-separable bad output SBM

The increasingly high frequency of heavy air pollution in most regions of China signals the urgent need for the transition to an environmentally friendly production performance by socioeconomic sectors for the sake of people's health and sustainable development. Focusing on CO2 and major air pollutants, this paper presents a comprehensive environmental efficiency index based on evaluating the environmental efficiency of major socioeconomic sectors, including agriculture, power, industry, residential and transportation, at the province level in China in 2010 based on a slack-based measure DEA model with non-separable bad output and weights determined by the coefficient of variation method. In terms of the environment, 5, 16, 6, 7 and 4 provinces operated along the production frontier for the agricultural, power, industrial, residential and transportation sectors, respectively, in China in 2010, whereas Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Ningxia, Hubei and Yunnan showed lowest efficiency correspondingly. The comprehensive environmental efficiency index varied from 0.3863 to 0.9261 for 30 provinces in China, with a nationwide average of 0.6383 in 2010; Shanghai ranked at the top, and Shanxi was last. Regional disparities in environmental efficiency were identified. A more detailed inefficiency decomposition and benchmarking analysis provided insight for understanding the source of comprehensive environmental inefficiency and, more specifically, the reduction potential for CO2 and air pollutants. Some specific research and policy implications were uncovered from this work

Electrochemical reforming of ethanol with acetate Co-Production on nickel cobalt selenide nanoparticles

The energy efficiency of water electrolysis is limited by the sluggish reaction kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). To overcome this limitation, OER can be replaced by a less demanding oxidation reaction, which in the ideal scenario could be even used to generate additional valuable chemicals. Herein, we focus on the electrochemical reforming of ethanol in alkaline media to generate hydrogen at a Pt cathode and acetate as a co-product at a NiCoSe anode. We first detail the solution synthesis of a series of NiCoSe electrocatalysts. By adjusting the Ni/Co ratio, the electrocatalytic activity and selectivity for the production of acetate from ethanol are optimized. Best performances are obtained at low substitutions of Ni by Co in the cubic NiSe phase. Density function theory reveals that the Co substitution can effectively enhance the ethanol adsorption and decrease the energy barrier for its first step dehydrogenation during its conversion to acetate. However, we experimentally observe that too large amounts of Co decrease the ethanol-to-acetate Faradaic efficiency from values above 90% to just 50 %. At the optimized composition, the NiCoSe electrode delivers a stable chronoamperometry current density of up to 45 mA cm, corresponding to 1.2 A g, in a 1 M KOH + 1 M ethanol solution, with a high ethanol-to-acetate Faradaic efficiency of 82.2% at a relatively low potential, 1.50 V vs. RHE, and with an acetate production rate of 0.34 mmol cm h.This work was supported by the start-up funding at Chengdu University. It was also supported by the European Regional Development Funds and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the project SEHTOP (ENE2016-77798-C4-3-R), MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ project, and NANOGEN (PID2020-116093RB-C43). X. Wang, C. Xing, X. Han, R. He, Z. Liang, and Y. Zhang are grateful for the scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC). X. Han and J. Arbiol acknowledge funding from Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 327. ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Programme (MINECO, Grant no. SEV-2013-0295). IREC and ICN2 are funded by the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya

A Companion Cell–Dominant and Developmentally Regulated H3K4 Demethylase Controls Flowering Time in Arabidopsis via the Repression of FLC Expression

Flowering time relies on the integration of intrinsic developmental cues and environmental signals. FLC and its downstream target FT are key players in the floral transition in Arabidopsis. Here, we characterized the expression pattern and function of JMJ18, a novel JmjC domain-containing histone H3K4 demethylase gene in Arabidopsis. JMJ18 was dominantly expressed in companion cells; its temporal expression pattern was negatively and positively correlated with that of FLC and FT, respectively, during vegetative development. Mutations in JMJ18 resulted in a weak late-flowering phenotype, while JMJ18 overexpressors exhibited an obvious early-flowering phenotype. JMJ18 displayed demethylase activity toward H3K4me3 and H3K4me2, and bound FLC chromatin directly. The levels of H3K4me3 and H3K4me2 in chromatins of FLC clade genes and the expression of FLC clade genes were reduced, whereas FT expression was induced and the protein expression of FT increased in JMJ18 overexpressor lines. The early-flowering phenotype caused by the overexpression of JMJ18 was mainly dependent on the functional FT. Our findings suggest that the companion cell–dominant and developmentally regulated JMJ18 binds directly to the FLC locus, reducing the level of H3K4 methylation in FLC chromatin and repressing the expression of FLC, thereby promoting the expression of FT in companion cells to stimulate flowering

Numerical investigation of aerodynamic droplet breakup in a high temperature gas environment

The Navier-Stokes equations, energy and vapor transport equations coupled with the VOF methodology and a vaporization rate model are numerically solved to predict aerodynamic droplet breakup in a high temperature gas environment. The numerical model accounts for variable properties and uses an adaptive local grid refinement technique on the gas-liquid interface to enhance the accuracy of the computations. The parameters examined include Weber (We) numbers in the range 15-90 and gas phase temperatures in the range 400-1000 K for a volatile n-heptane droplet. Initially isothermal flow conditions are examined in order to assess the effect of Weber (We) and Reynolds (Re) number. The latter was altered by varying the gas phase properties in the aforementioned temperature range. It is verified that the We number is the controlling parameter, while the Re number affects the droplet breakup at low We number conditions. The inclusion of droplet heating and evaporation mechanisms has revealed that heating effects have generally a small impact on the phenomenon due to its short duration except for low We number cases. Droplet deformation enhances heat transfer and droplet evaporation. An improved 0-D model is proposed, able to predict the droplet heating and vaporization of highly deformed droplets

Resistosome and inflammasome: platforms mediating innate immunity

The nucleotide-binding domain (NBD) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) containing (NLR) proteins are intracellular immune receptors that sense pathogens or stress-associated signals in animals and plants. Direct or indirect binding of these stimuli to NLRs results in formation of higher-order large protein complexes termed inflammasomes in animals and resistosomes in plants to mediate immune signaling. Here we focus on plant NLRs and discuss the activation mechanism of the ZAR1 resistosome from Arabidopsis thaliana. We also outline the analogies and differences between the ZAR1 resistosome and the NLR inflammasomes, and discuss how the structural and biochemical information available on these two large types of protein complexes sheds light on signaling mechanisms of other plant NLRs

Intuitionistic Unbalanced Linguistic Generalized Multiple Attribute Group Decision Making and Its Application to Green Products Selection

In many countries, green products play a critical role in energy recycling and environment protection. The selection of green products can be regarded as a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problem. Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the problem, decision makers may give their personal preference values to different attributes of alternatives by intuitionistic unbalanced linguistic term sets. The main purpose of this paper is to put forward a new generalized multiple attribute group decision making (GMAGDM) approach based on the intuitionistic unbalanced linguistic dependent weighted generalized Heronian mean (IULDWGHM) operator and the intuitionistic unbalanced linguistic dependent weighted generalized geometric Heronian mean (IULDWGGHM) operator. The proposed method can not only relieve the influence of unfair assessments, but also consider the interaction effects of attributes. Furthermore, the appropriate parameter values and operators can be selected to meet the different risk preference of decision makers and actual requirements. Finally, a green products selection case is given to illustrate the effectiveness and universality of the developed approach

Structural insight into chitin perception by chitin elicitor receptor kinase 1 of Oryza sativa

Plants have developed innate immune systems to fight against pathogenic fungi by monitoring pathogenic signals known as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) and have established endo symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi through recognition of mycorrhizal (Myc) factors. Chitin elicitor receptor kinase 1 of Oryza sativa subsp. Japonica (OsCERK1) plays a bifunctional role in mediating both chitin-triggered immunity and symbiotic relationships with AM fungi. However, it remains unclear whether OsCERK1 can directly recognize chitin molecules. In this study, we show that OsCERK1 binds to the chitin hexamer ((NAG)(6)) and tetramer ((NAG)(4)) directly and determine the crystal structure of the OsCERK1-(NAG)(6) complex at 2 angstrom. The structure shows that one OsCERK1 is associated with one (NAG)(6). Upon recognition, chitin hexamer binds OsCERK1 by interacting with the shallow groove on the surface of LysM2. These structural findings, complemented by mutational analyses, demonstrate that LysM2 is crucial for recognition of both (NAG)(6) and (NAG)(4). Altogether, these findings provide structural insights into the ability of OsCERK1 in chitin perception, which will lead to a better understanding of the role of OsCERK1 in mediating both immunity and symbiosis in rice

Structural basis for negative regulation of the Escherichia coli maltose system

Abstract Proteins from the signal transduction ATPases with numerous domains (STAND) family are known to play an important role in innate immunity. However, it remains less well understood how they function in transcriptional regulation. MalT is a bacterial STAND that controls the Escherichia coli maltose system. Inactive MalT is sequestered by different inhibitory proteins such as MalY. Here, we show that MalY interacts with one oligomerization interface of MalT to form a 2:2 complex. MalY represses MalT activity by blocking its oligomerization and strengthening ADP-mediated MalT autoinhibition. A loop region N-terminal to the nucleotide-binding domain (NBD) of MalT has a dual role in mediating MalT autoinhibition and activation. Structural comparison shows that ligand-binding induced oligomerization is required for stabilizing the C-terminal domains and conferring DNA-binding activity. Together, our study reveals the mechanism whereby a prokaryotic STAND is inhibited by a repressor protein and offers insights into signaling by STAND transcription activators

Effect of Ketogenic Diets on Body Composition and Metabolic Parameters of Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A ketogenic diet characterized by high fat and low carbohydrate can drive the body to produce a large number of ketone bodies, altering human metabolism. Unlike normal cells, tumor cells have difficulty in consuming ketone bodies. Therefore, the application of ketogenic diets in cancer therapy is gaining attention. However, the effect of ketogenic diets on body parameters of cancer patients is not well established. This meta-analysis aimed to summarize the effects of ketogenic diets on cancer patients in earlier controlled trials. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for clinical trials that enrolled cancer patients who received ketogenic diets intervention. Ten controlled trials were included in this meta-analysis. Data were extracted and checked by three authors independently. Pooled effect sizes revealed a significant effect of ketogenic diets on body weight (SMD −1.83, 95% CI −2.30 to −1.35; p p < 0.00001). No significant effect on blood glucose, insulin, or lipid profile except triglycerides was found in the analysis. It had no effect on liver and kidney function except that GGT were decreased a little. There were no significant changes in IGF-1 and TNF-α related to tumor growth. Mental health improvement of cancer patients was supported by several trials. Taken together, findings in this study confirmed that the ketogenic diet was a safe approach for cancer patients reducing body weight and fat mass. In addition, cancer treatment-related indicators changed insignificantly. Ketogenic diets may be beneficial to the quality of life of cancer patients. However, intervention duration in most studies is shorter than 6 months, and the effect of a long-term ketogenic diet is still required further validation. More trials with a larger sample size are necessary to give a more conclusive result; PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021277559