Toward better governance of the marine environment: an examination of the revision of China’s marine environmental protection law in 2023

The marine economy has become an increasingly important contributor to the global economy due to advancements in science and technology and humans’ growing ability to manipulate nature. As a country with a vast marine territory, China has the important responsibility of utilizing marine resources rationally and promoting sustainable development of the marine economy. Since the introduction of the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (MEPL) in 1982, China has made significant progress in strengthening the legal framework for marine environmental protection. MEPL has undergone several revisions to improve its legal content under the guidance of national policies. On October 24, 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress revised and adopted MEPL again. This paper analyzes the changes in the contents of the new law and the legal background at home and abroad while integrating the domestic and international legal backgrounds. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the changes made in the new law, summarizes the revision ideas, and examines the new law in the context of domestic and international laws. The aim is to provide a clear understanding of the spirit and purpose of the legislation

Extremely large magnetoresistance in topologically trivial semimetal α\alpha-WP2_2

Extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) was recently discovered in many non-magnetic materials, while its underlying mechanism remains poorly understood due to the complex electronic structure of these materials. Here, we report an investigation of the $\alpha$-phase WP$_2$, a topologically trivial semimetal with monoclinic crystal structure (C2/m), which contrasts to the recently discovered robust type-II Weyl semimetal phase in $\beta$-WP$_2$. We found that $\alpha$-WP$_2$ exhibits almost all the characteristics of XMR materials: the near-quadratic field dependence of MR, a field-induced up-turn in resistivity following by a plateau at low temperature, which can be understood by the compensation effect, and high mobility of carriers confirmed by our Hall effect measurements. It was also found that the normalized MRs under different magnetic fields has the same temperature dependence in $\alpha$-WP$_2$, the Kohler scaling law can describe the MR data in a wide temperature range, and there is no obvious change in the anisotropic parameter $\gamma$ value with temperature. The resistance polar diagram has a peanut shape when field is rotated in $\textit{ac}$ plane, which can be understood by the anisotropy of Fermi surface. These results indicate that both field-induced-gap and temperature-induced Lifshitz transition are not the origin of up-turn in resistivity in the $\alpha$-WP$_2$ semimetal. Our findings establish $\alpha$-WP$_2$ as a new reference material for exploring the XMR phenomena.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure

Phospholipid Scramblase 1 Potentiates The Antiviral Activity of Interferon

Phospholipid scramblase 1 (PLSCR1) is an interferon (IFN)- and growth factor-inducible, calcium-binding protein that either inserts into the plasma membrane or binds DNA in the nucleus depending on its state of palmyitoylation. In certain hematopoietic cells, PLSCR1 is required for normal maturation and terminal differentiation from progenitor cells as regulated by select growth factors, where it promotes recruitment and activation of Src kinases. PLSCR1 is a substrate of Src (and Abl) kinases, and transcription of the PLSCR1 gene is regulated by the same growth factor receptor pathways in which PLSCR1 potentiates afferent signaling. The marked transcriptional upregulation of PLSCR1 by IFNs led us to explore whether PLSCR1 plays an analogous role in cellular responses to IFN, with specific focus on antiviral activities. Accordingly, human cells in which PLSCR1 expression was decreased with short interfering RNA were rendered relatively insensitive to the antiviral activity of IFNs, resulting in higher titers of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and encephalomyocarditis virus. Similarly, VSV replicated to higher titers in mouse PLSCR1−/− embryonic fibroblasts than in identical cells transduced to express PLSCR1. PLSCR1 inhibited accumulation of primary VSV transcripts, similar to the effects of IFN against VSV. The antiviral effect of PLSCR1 correlated with increased expression of a subset of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), including ISG15, ISG54, p56, and guanylate binding proteins. Our results suggest that PLSCR1, which is itself an ISG-encoded protein, provides a mechanism for amplifying and enhancing the IFN response through increased expression of a select subset of potent antiviral genes

Unusual Fermi Surface Sheet-Dependent Band Splitting in Sr2RuO4 Revealed by High Resolution Angle-Resolved Photoemission

High resolution angle-resolved photoemission measurements have been carried out on Sr2RuO4. We observe clearly two sets of Fermi surface sheets near the (\pi,0)-(0,\pi) line which are most likely attributed to the surface and bulk Fermi surface splitting of the \beta band. This is in strong contrast to the nearly null surface and bulk Fermi surface splitting of the \alpha band although both have identical orbital components. Extensive band structure calculations are performed by considering various scenarios, including structural distortion, spin-orbit coupling and surface ferromagnetism. However, none of them can explain such a qualitative difference of the surface and bulk Fermi surface splitting between the \alpha and \beta sheets. This unusual behavior points to an unknown order on the surface of Sr2RuO4 that remains to be uncovered. Its revelation will be important for studying and utilizing novel quantum phenomena associated with the surface of Sr2RuO4 as a result of its being a possible p-wave chiral superconductor and a topological superconductor.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Macerals of lignite and the effect of alkali treatment on the structure and combustion performance of lignite

Suppressing the spontaneous combustion of lignite is of great significance for safe transportation and efficient utilization of lignite. Taking the Shengli lignite as the research object, two different macerals, inertinite and huminite, were selected by optical microscope, and treated with NaOH respectively to study the relationship between the structure and combustion reaction performance of different macerals and lignite treated with NaOH. The structure of the prepared coal samples was characterized by SEM-EDS, XPS, FT-IR, XRD and Raman, and the changes of the main functional groups were analyzed. The effect of NaOH treatment on the combustion performance of different maceral lignite was investigated by TGA. The results showed that the ignition temperature of huminite lignite was about 10 ℃ earlier than that of inertinite, but the comprehensive combustion characteristic index of inertinite lignite was slightly higher than that of huminite. After the NaOH treatment, the lignite of different macerals showed a hysteresis of combustion, there were two obvious weight losses in the range of 200−500 ℃ and 650−800 ℃, respectively, and the mass loss was mainly concentrated in the second weight loss, in particular, the effect of huminite lignite was more significant, and the temperature corresponding to the maximum combustion reaction rate was about 60 ℃ behind that of inertinite. The kinetic analysis of the combustion process of the coal samples showed that the activation energy of combustion reaction of lignite with different macerals significantly increased after the NaOH treatment, and the huminite lignite was higher than that of inertinite lignite. The XPS/FT-IR results revealed that the contents of carboxylic oxygen-containing functional groups in different macerals of lignite treated by NaOH decreased, the main reason is that in the process of NaOH treatment, Na+ interacted with the carboxylic oxygen-containing functional groups in lignite to form the sodium carboxylate structure, and the relative amount of the sodium carboxylate structure in huminite coal was relatively large. It is believed that the inhibitory effect on the combustion of lignite with different macerals is attributed to the stability of the sodium carboxylate structure, and the number of the sodium carboxylate structure formed by combining with Na is the main reason for the difference in its combustion performance. The XRD/Raman analysis indicates that the formation of the sodium carboxylate structure in lignite leads to the increase of the order degree of carbon microcrystalline structure, and the order degree of huminite lignite is higher than that in inertinite

A novel and highly efficient Zr-containing catalyst supported by biomass-derived sodium carboxymethyl cellulose for hydrogenation of furfural

Functional use of biomass based on its structural properties is an efficient approach for the valuable utilization of biomass resources. In this work, carboxymethyl cellulose zirconium-based catalyst (Zr-CMC) was constructed by the coordination between the carboxylic groups in sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) with transition metal Zr4+. The prepared catalyst was applied into the synthesis of furfuryl alcohol (FAL) by catalytic transfer hydrogenation of biomass-derived furfural (FF) using isopropanol as hydrogen donor. Both the preparation conditions and the reaction conditions of Zr-CMC catalyst were investigated and optimized. The results showed that Zr-CMC was efficient for the reaction with the FF conversion, FAL yield and selectivity reaching to 92.5%, 91.5 %, and 99.0%, respectively, under the mild conditions (90°C). Meanwhile, the Zr-CMC catalyst could be reused at least for five times without obvious decrease in efficiency, indicating the catalyst had excellent stability. With the advantages of sustainable raw materials, high efficiency, and excellent stability, the prepared catalyst is potential for application in the field of biomass conversion