Ionic liquid electrolytes in mg-air batteries

 This study investigated ionic liquid electrolytes for Mg-air batteries and proposed a promising electrolyte material for this battery system. Mg-air batteries employing the proposed material has also shown its promise in energy storage applications

Occupational dualism and intergenerational educational mobility in the rural economy: evidence from China and India

This paper extends the Becker-Tomes model of intergenerational educational mobility to a rural economy characterized by farm-nonfarm occupational dualism and provides a comparative analysis of rural China and rural India. The model builds a micro-foundation for the widely used linear-in-levels estimating equation. Returns to education for parents and productivity of financial investment in children’s education determine relative mobility, as measured by the slope, while the intercept depends, among other factors, on the degree of persistence in nonfarm occupations. Unlike many existing studies based on coresident samples, our estimates of intergenerational mobility do not suffer from truncation bias. The sons in rural India faced lower educational mobility compared with the sons in rural China in the 1970s to 1990s. To understand the role of genetic inheritance, Altonji et al. (2005) biprobit sensitivity analysis is combined with the evidence on intergenerational correlation in cognitive ability in economics and behavioral genetics literature. The observed persistence can be due solely to genetic correlations in China, but not in India. Father’s nonfarm occupation was complementary to his education in determining a sons’ schooling in India, but separable in China. There is evidence of emerging complementarity for the younger cohorts in rural China. Structural change in favor of the nonfarm sector contributed to educational inequality in rural India. Evidence from supplementary data on economic mechanisms suggests that the model provides plausible explanations for the contrasting roles of occupational dualism in intergenerational educational mobility in rural India and rural China

T-cadherin deficiency increases vascular vulnerability in T2DM through impaired NO bioactivity.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial dysfunction plays a critical role in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). T-cadherin (T-cad) has gained recognition as a regulator of endothelial cell (EC) function. The present study examined whether T-cad deficiency increases vascular vulnerability in T2DM. METHODS: Vascular segments were isolated from WT or T-cad knockout mice. Endothelial function, total NO accumulation, and the expression of T-cad related proteins were determined. RESULTS: Ach and acidified NaNO2 induced similar vasorelaxation in WT groups. T-cad KO mice exhibited normal response to acidified NaNO2, but manifested markedly reduced response to Ach. NO accumulation was also decreased in T-cad KO group. T-cad expression was reduced in WT mice fed 8 weeks of high fat diet (HFD). Furthermore, exacerbated reduction of vasorelaxation was observed in T-cad KO mice fed 8 weeks of HFD. CONCLUSIONS: In the current study, we provide the first in vivo evidence that T-cadherin deficiency causes endothelial dysfunction in T2DM vascular segments, suggesting the involvement of T-cad deficiency in T2DM pathogenesis

Effects of topographic and meteorological parameters on the surface area loss of ice aprons in the Mont Blanc massif (European Alps)

Ice aprons (IAs) are part of the critical components of the Alpine cryosphere. As a result of the changing climate over the past few decades, deglaciation has resulted in a surface decrease of IAs, which has not yet been documented out of a few specific examples. In this study, we quantify the effects of climate change on IAs since the mid-20th Century in the Mont-Blanc massif (western European Alps). We then evaluate the role of climate forcing parameters and the local topography in the behaviour of IAs. For this, we precisely mapped the surface areas of 200 IAs using high-resolution aerial and satellite photographs from 1952, 2001, 2012 and 2019. From the latter inventory, the surface area of the present individual IAs ranges from 0.001 to 0.04 km2. IAs have lost their surface area over the past 70 years, with an alarming increase since the early 2000s. The total area, from 7.93 km2 in 1952, was reduced to 5.91 km2 in 2001 (-25.5 %) before collapsing to 4.21 km2 in 2019 (-47 % since 1952). We performed a regression analysis using temperature and precipitation proxies to understand better the effects of climate forcing parameters on IA surface area variations. We found a strong correlation between both proxies and the relative area loss of IAs, indicating the significant influence of the changing climate on the evolution of IAs. We also evaluated the role of the local topographic factors in the IAs area loss. At a regional scale, factors like direct solar radiation and elevation have an important influence on the behaviour of IAs, while others like curvature, slope, and size of the IAs seem to be rather important on a local scale.</p

Optimization calculation of stope structure parameters based on Mathews stabilization graph method

Mathews stability graphic method, based on the rock classification system, measures the stability of the ore roof area of a relatively simple calculation method and provides a theoretical basis for mine rational design stope structure size parameters. In this study, we used a large-scale tungsten mine in Jiangxi Province as the engineering background and performed on-site engineering geological surveys and indoor ore rock mechanics tests in the middle section of mine 417 to obtain multiple engineering quality indicators for the mines and surrounding rocks. The Mathews stability map method and Barton limit span theory were used. The reasonable size range of the exposed face of the stope was calculated by performing theoretical analysis on the ultimate span. Then, FLAC3D calculation and analysis software were used for the simulation of the stope structure, and the most reasonable design of the exposed surface dimension was selected and used as reference for ensuring the safe production of the mine

Radar-Coding and Geocoding Lookup Tables for the Fusion of GIS Data and SAR images in Mountain Areas

International audienceSynthetic aperture radar (SAR) image orthorectification induces an important alteration of information due to the side-looking geometry of SAR acquisition. In high-relief areas, the difficulty is increased by the foldover effect: The images acquired with low incidence angles cannot be registered by a bijective transformation like polynomial transformations, as usually proposed by conventional software. In this letter, a simple and efficient method, fitted to geocoded data and SAR images, is introduced to propose a generic coregistration tool that takes SAR geometry into account without requiring the exact sensor model, specific parameters, and precise navigation data. This method is based on a simulated SAR image and on the computation of lookup tables (LUTs) that represent the coordinate transform from one geometry to the other. Results are presented on a high-relief area in the Alps, where satellite and airborne SAR images are used for glacier evolution monitoring. A comparison to other sensor-independent approaches has been performed, showing that the proposed approach performs better in mountain areas. The resulting LUTs allow merging SAR data with the georeferenced data, either in ground geometry by orthorectifying the SAR information or in radar geometry by the inverse transformation, namely, radar-coding data from a geographic information system, to improve the analysis of SAR images and the result interpretation