Linking a storm water management model to a novel two-dimensional model for urban pluvial flood modeling

This article describes a new method of urban pluvial flood modeling by coupling the 1D storm water management model (SWMM) and the 2D flood inundation model (ECNU Flood-Urban). The SWMM modeling results (the overflow of the manholes) are used as the input boundary condition of the ECNU Flood-Urban model to simulate the rainfall–runoff processes in an urban environment. The analysis is applied to the central business district of East Nanjing Road in downtown Shanghai, considering 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-year return period rainfall scenarios. The results show that node overflow, water depth, and inundation area increase proportionately with the growing return periods. Water depths are mostly predicted to be shallow and surface flows generally occur in the urban road network due to its low-lying nature. The simulation result of the coupled model proves to be reliable and suggests that urban surface water flooding could be accurately simulated by using this methodology. Adaptation measures (upgrading of the urban drainage system) can then be targeted at specific locations with significant overflow and flooding

A vulnerability assessment of urban emergency in schools of Shanghai

Schools and students are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards, especially pluvial flooding in cities. This paper presents a scenario-based study that assesses the school vulnerability of emergency services (i.e., Emergency Medical Service and Fire & Rescue Service) to urban pluvial flooding in the city center of Shanghai, China through the combination of flood hazard analysis and GIS-based accessibility mapping. Emergency coverages and response times in various traffic conditions are quantified to generate school vulnerability under normal no-flood and 100-y pluvial flood scenarios. The findings indicate that severe pluvial flooding could lead to proportionate and linear impacts on emergency response provision to schools in the city. Only 11% of all the schools is predicted to be completely unreachable (very high vulnerability) during flood emergency but the majority of the schools would experience significant delay in the travel times of emergency responses. In this case, appropriate adaptations need to be particularly targeted for specific hot-spot areas (e.g., new urbanized zones) and crunch times (e.g., rush hours)

Gaming the system: Suboptimal compliance with loot box probability disclosure regulations in China

Loot boxes provide randomized rewards in video games; their purchase is linked to disordered gambling and they are present in approximately half of UK video games. The relative novelty of loot boxes means that regulators and policymakers in various jurisdictions are still deciding how to regulate them. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is the first, and presently only, jurisdiction to legally require companies to disclose the probabilities of obtaining randomized loot box rewards – an approach that is also favored by the industry as self-regulation. This study is the first to assess paid loot box prevalence in the PRC and companies’ discretionary interpretations of probability disclosure regulations. Loot boxes were found in 91 of the 100 highest-grossing PRC iPhone games. Of games deemed suitable for children aged 12+, 90.5% contained loot boxes. Probability disclosures could not be found for 4.4% of games containing loot boxes. Disclosures were implemented through various methods both in-game and on the games’ official websites; however, consistent with the concept of ‘sludge,’ only 5.5% used the most prominent format of automatically displaying the probabilities on the in-game loot box purchase page. Loot box probability disclosures should be uniform and visually prominent to best help inform consumers

Adapting UFF4MOF for Heterometallic Rare-Earth Metal–Organic Frameworks

Heterometallic metal–organic frameworks based on rare-earth metals (RE-MOFs) have potential in a number of applications where energy transfer between nearby metal atoms is required. This observation implies that it is important to understand the level of local mixing that is achieved between metals of different types during synthesis of RE-MOFs. Density functional theory calculations can give quantitative information on the relative energy of different configurations of RE-MOFs, but these calculations cannot be applied to the full range of medium- and long-range orderings that are possible in heterometallic materials. This limitation can be overcome using force field (FF)-based calculations if appropriate FFs are available. We show that an existing generic FF for MOFs, UFF4MOF, does not accurately predict energies of mixing in heterometallic Nd/Yb MOFs and introduce a modified FF to address this shortcoming. The resulting FF is used to explore metal orderings in large simulation volumes for a Nd/Yb MOF, illustrating the complexities that can arise in the structure of heterometallic RE-MOFs

Adapting UFF4MOF for Heterometallic Rare-Earth Metal–Organic Frameworks

Heterometallic metal–organic frameworks based on rare-earth metals (RE-MOFs) have potential in a number of applications where energy transfer between nearby metal atoms is required. This observation implies that it is important to understand the level of local mixing that is achieved between metals of different types during synthesis of RE-MOFs. Density functional theory calculations can give quantitative information on the relative energy of different configurations of RE-MOFs, but these calculations cannot be applied to the full range of medium- and long-range orderings that are possible in heterometallic materials. This limitation can be overcome using force field (FF)-based calculations if appropriate FFs are available. We show that an existing generic FF for MOFs, UFF4MOF, does not accurately predict energies of mixing in heterometallic Nd/Yb MOFs and introduce a modified FF to address this shortcoming. The resulting FF is used to explore metal orderings in large simulation volumes for a Nd/Yb MOF, illustrating the complexities that can arise in the structure of heterometallic RE-MOFs

Schottky Barrier-Based Built-In Electric Field for Enhanced Tumor Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy’s antitumor efficacy is hindered by the inefficient generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to the photogenerated electron–hole pairs recombination of photosensitizers (PS). Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop efficient PSs with enhanced carrier dynamics. Herein, we designed Schottky junctions composed of cobalt tetroxide and palladium nanocubes (Co3O4@Pd) with a built-in electric field as effective PS. The built-in electric field enhanced photogenerated charge separation and migration, resulting in the generation of abundant electron–hole pairs and allowing effective production of ROS. Thanks to the built-in electric field, the photocurrent intensity and carrier lifetime of Co3O4@Pd were approximately 2 and 3 times those of Co3O4, respectively. Besides, the signal intensity of hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen increased to 253.4% and 135.9%, respectively. Moreover, the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of Pd also enhanced the photothermal conversion efficiency of Co3O4@Pd to 40.50%. In vitro cellular level and in vivo xenograft model evaluations demonstrated that Co3O4@Pd could generate large amounts of ROS, trigger apoptosis, and inhibit tumor growth under near-infrared laser irradiation. Generally, this study reveals the contribution of the built-in electric field to improving photodynamic performance and provides new ideas for designing efficient inorganic PSs

Cobalt/Copper-Cocatalyzed Synthesis of Imidazo[1,2‑<i>a</i>:3,4‑<i>a</i>′]dipyridiniums from 2<i>H</i>‑[1,2′-Bipyridin]-2-ones and 2‑Bromoacetophenones

A cobalt/copper-cocatalyzed facile synthesis of imidazo­[1,2-<i>a</i>:3,4-<i>a</i>′]­dipyridiniums from 2<i>H</i>-[1,2′-bipyridin]-2-ones and 2-bromoacetophenones is presented. This strategy provides an alternative to the imidazo­[1,2-<i>a</i>:3,4-<i>a</i>′]­dipyridinium synthesis by employing readily available substrates and a simple procedure, which would render this method potentially useful in organic synthesis

Hazard assessment for typhoon‐induced coastal flooding and inundation in Shanghai, China

This paper describes an integrated climatological-hydrodynamic method that couples probabilistic hurricane model, storm surge model, inundation model, coastal protection data, and sea level rise projections to estimate tropical cyclone-induced coastal flood inundation hazard in a coastal megacity-Shanghai, China. We identify three “worst-case” scenarios (extracted from over 5,000 synthetic storms) that generate unprecedentedly high flood levels in Shanghai. Nevertheless, we find that the mainland Shanghai is relatively safe from coastal flooding under the current climate, thanks to its high-standard seawall protection. However, the city is expected to be increasingly at risk due to future sea level rise, with inundation two times and 20 times more likely to occur by mid- and late-21st century, respectively, and inundation depth and area to greatly increase (e.g., 60%–1,360% increase in the inundation area for the “worst cases” by 2,100). The low-lying and poorly protected area (e.g., Chongming Island) is likely to be moderately affected by flood events with long return periods at the current state but could be largely inundated in future sea-level-rise situations

Trends in Siting of Metals in Heterometallic Nd–Yb Metal–Organic Frameworks and Molecular Crystals

Several studies suggest that metal ordering within metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is important for understanding how MOFs behave in relevant applications; however, these siting trends can be difficult to determine experimentally. To garner insight into the energetic driving forces that may lead to nonrandom ordering within heterometallic MOFs, we employ density functional theory (DFT) calculations on several bimetallic metal–organic crystals composed of Nd and Yb metal atoms. We also investigate the metal siting trends for a newly synthesized MOF. Our DFT-based energy of mixing results suggest that Nd will likely occupy sites with greater access to electronegative atoms and that local homometallic domains within a mixed-metal Nd–Yb system are favored. We also explore the use of less computationally extensive methods such as classical force fields and cluster expansion models to understand their feasibility for large system sizes. This study highlights the impact of metal ordering on the energetic stability of heterometallic MOFs and crystal structures

Strategic storm flood evacuation planning for large coastal cities enables more effective transfer of vulnerable elderly populations

Emergency responders in coastal cities are anticipated to provide effective evacuation of at-risk populations during the preparedness and response phases of coastal floods due to land-falling storms or cyclones. However, existing contingency plans primarily focus on the evacuation of the general public rather than special arrangement for elderly populations who constitute a large proportion of flood fatalities. Here we present a system-level methodology to elaborate citywide coastal flood evacuation plans for optimal deployment of shelters and effective transfer of elderly people with special needs. We conduct a comparative analysis between Shanghai and New York City, which are both among the most exposed coastal cities to storm-induced flooding but represent two distinct institutional systems of emergency operation. The results show marked disparities in evacuation patterns for elderly residents in the two cities. Storm flood evacuation is more challenging in Shanghai due to insufficient provision of shelter capacity (~230,000). Implementing risk-informed and strategic planning could not only meet the potentially huge demand of vulnerable elderly (~520,000) but also improve the overall efficiency of evacuee transfer by a factor of 3. Our work provides new insights into operational emergency evacuation decisions and informs flood management policy development for major coastal cities globally.</p