Green preparation of vanadium carbide through one-step molten salt electrolysis

Vanadium carbide (VC) as excellent ceramic and functional material is usually prepared by carbothermal reduction of V₂O₅ which must be extracted from a typical V slag by complex processes. Pollutants, such as ammonia-nitrogen wastewater, NH₃ and CO₂ are inevitably discharged. A novel and green method for VC preparation was proposed by one-step co-electrolysis of soluble NaVO₃ and CO₂ in molten salt. It was found that VC with high purity was easily obtained by reducing electrolysis temperature and CO₂ flow rate to 600 °C and 10 mL min⁻¹ at 3.0 V. Besides VC with particles and layered stacking structure in products, a small amount of carbon and oxygen elements existed. The atomic percentage contents of C, V, and O elements in VC were about 50.0%, 44.5% and 3.8%, respectively. During electrolysis, CO₃²⁻ and VO₃⁻ was reduced at about −0.55 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and −1.38 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), respectively. CO₃²⁻ ions were more easily reduced than VO₃⁻, and was firstly reduced to CO₂²⁻ and then converted to C. Then, VC was prepared by two routes from CO₂ and NaVO₃. One route is that VO₃⁻ ions are firstly electroreduced to VO₂⁻ ions and then are further electroreduced to VC with C. Another route is that VO₃⁻ ions are electroreduced to V which in-situ reacted with C to VC. Both VO₃⁻ and CO₃²⁻ ions are electroreduced by two-step process. In final, VC is in-situ deposited on cathode. It provides a novel and green way to prepare VC and also achieves the high value-added utilization of vanadium slag and CO₂.     

不同盐沼湿地类型脱氮除磷效能及影响因素分析

采用沉水植物表面流湿地(沉水组)、挺水植物表面流湿地(挺水组)和浮床湿地(浮床组)3种盐沼湿地对长江口近岸低污染水体进行脱氮除磷效能的研究。结果表明,HRT为3 d时,水组、挺水组、浮床组对NO3^--N的去除率在高温时段分别为79.9%±13.2%、71.8%±15.2%、77.2%±13.2%,中温时段分别为39.4%±13.7%、31.5%±8.5%、18.4%±16.6%,低温时段分别为15.6%±14.6%、19.7%±8.6%、2.%5±8.6%。沉水组和挺水组对TP的去除率受温度影响较小,分别为66.4%±32.4%、55.5%±29.4%;而浮床组除磷效果受温度影响较大。当HRT缩短为1.5 d时,3组湿地系统在高温时段仍可达到相近的脱氮除磷效果,在中低温时段脱氮除磷效果都有不同程度的下降。     

Stem Photosynthesis—A Key Element of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Acclimatisation to Salinity

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is a leguminous plant of outstanding tolerance to abiotic stress. The aim of the presented study was to describe the mechanism of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) photosynthetic apparatus acclimatisation strategies to salinity stress. The seedlings were cultivated in a hydroponic system in media containing various concentrations of NaCl (0, 50, and 100 mM), imitating none, moderate, and severe salinity, respectively, for three weeks. In order to characterise the function and structure of the photosynthetic apparatus, Chl a fluorescence, gas exchange measurements, proteome analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis were done inter alia. Significant differences in the response of the leaf and stem photosynthetic apparatus to severe salt stress were observed. Leaves became the place of harmful ion (Na⁺) accumulation, and the efficiency of their carboxylation decreased sharply. In turn, in stems, the reconstruction of the photosynthetic apparatus (antenna and photosystem complexes) activated alternative electron transport pathways, leading to effective ATP synthesis, which is required for the efficient translocation of Na⁺ to leaves. These changes enabled efficient stem carboxylation and made them the main source of assimilates. The observed changes indicate the high plasticity of grass pea photosynthetic apparatus, providing an effective mechanism of tolerance to salinity stress.     

Potassium titanate whiskers on the walls of cordierite honeycomb ceramics for soot catalytic combustion

In this paper, potassium titanate whiskers was prepared via the Molten salt synthesis on the surface of cordierite ceramics for the regeneration of diesel particulate filters (DPFs). SEM, EDS, XRD, FT-IR, TG-DSC and TPO were carried out to characterize the morphology, microstructure, growth mechanism and catalytic performance of the samples. Potassium titanate whiskers with diameter (100–500 nm) and length (about 3 μm) is tightly combined with the cordierite ceramic substrate. The catalyst performance investigation demonstrates that potassium titanate whiskers decrease the soot combustion temperature apparently. The soot combustion process was studied by thermal analysis tests, and the activation energy of the combustion reaction can be calculated using Freeman-Carroll method. The carbon oxidation activation energy is 14.009 kcal/mol, and the activation energy for the catalytic reaction with potassium titanate whiskers is 6.287 kcal/mol, it can be illustrated that potassium titanate whiskers/cordierite catalyst possess excellence performance for carbon catalytic combustion. The coarseness of the interface increased because potassium titanate whiskers grew on the cordierite substrate, and the trapping ability could improve. This unique microstructure has potential application in the DPF field.     

基于PBFT区块链技术的电网企业仓储系统

提出了一种基于实用拜占庭容错(PBFT)算法的区块链技术,首先对传统的实用拜占庭容错算法原理进行了阐述,该传统算法包含前期、需求、预准备、准备、确认、答复6个阶段,但传统算法具有实时性差、缺乏惩罚机制、带宽高的缺点。针对出现的这些问题,又对传统算法进行了改进,具体涉及记账节点、共识过程以及视图切换过程。通过测试进一步证明了该改进算法的实用性,并将该算法应用于电网企业中,构建的虚拟仓库实现了联储联备,降低了库存资金的耗费,并且提高了电网企业库存管理的效率。     

Adaptation to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances Resistance of Oral Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by Up-Regulating Polymerase η and Increasing DNA Repair Efficiency

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response is an adaptive program to cope with cellular stress that disturbs the function and homeostasis of ER, which commonly occurs during cancer progression to late stage. Late-stage cancers, mostly requiring chemotherapy, often develop treatment resistance. Chemoresistance has been linked to ER stress response; however, most of the evidence has come from studies that correlate the expression of stress markers with poor prognosis or demonstrate proapoptosis by the knockdown of stress-responsive genes. Since ER stress in cancers usually persists and is essentially not induced by genetic manipulations, we used low doses of ER stress inducers at levels that allowed cell adaptation to occur in order to investigate the effect of stress response on chemoresistance. We found that prolonged tolerable ER stress promotes mesenchymal–epithelial transition, slows cell-cycle progression, and delays the S-phase exit. Consequently, cisplatin-induced apoptosis was significantly decreased in stress-adapted cells, implying their acquisition of cisplatin resistance. Molecularly, we found that proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) ubiquitination and the expression of polymerase η, the main polymerase responsible for translesion synthesis across cisplatin-DNA damage, were up-regulated in ER stress-adaptive cells, and their enhanced cisplatin resistance was abrogated by the knockout of polymerase η. We also found that a fraction of p53 in stress-adapted cells was translocated to the nucleus, and that these cells exhibited a significant decline in the level of cisplatin-DNA damage. Consistently, we showed that the nuclear p53 coincided with strong positivity of glucose-related protein 78 (GRP78) on immunostaining of clinical biopsies, and the cisplatin-based chemotherapy was less effective for patients with high levels of ER stress. Taken together, this study uncovers that adaptation to ER stress enhances DNA repair and damage tolerance, with which stressed cells gain resistance to chemotherapeutics.     

Acceptive Immunity: The Role of Fucosylated Glycans in Human Host–Microbiome Interactions

The growth in the number of chronic non-communicable diseases in the second half of the past century and in the first two decades of the new century is largely due to the disruption of the relationship between the human body and its symbiotic microbiota, and not pathogens. The interaction of the human immune system with symbionts is not accompanied by inflammation, but is a physiological norm. This is achieved via microbiota control by the immune system through a complex balance of pro-inflammatory and suppressive responses, and only a disturbance of this balance can trigger pathophysiological mechanisms. This review discusses the establishment of homeostatic relationships during immune system development and intestinal bacterial colonization through the interaction of milk glycans, mucins, and secretory immunoglobulins. In particular, the role of fucose and fucosylated glycans in the mechanism of interactions between host epithelial and immune cells is discussed.     

Establishment of a color tolerance for yarn-dyed fabrics from different color-depth yarns

Yarn-dyed fabric is often woven from warp and weft yarns in the same color depth to ensure a uniform color appearance. The difference in color depth between warp and weft tends to result in the uneven color of the yarn-dyed fabric. This article aims to establish a color tolerance for yarn-dyed fabric that can be woven with a qualified color appearance but from the warp and weft yarns in different color depths. A total of 27 yarn-dyed fabric samples in three color series (red, yellow, and blue) were evaluated by using the yarn-dyed fabric from warp and weft yarns in the same color depth of 2% (on weight of fabric, owf) as the standard. Visual assessment and instrumental measurement of color were carried out to establish the color tolerance ellipse that was defined as CMC (Color Measurement Committee) color differences (2:1) of no more than 1.00. It was found that the color strengths (K/S) and color differences (ΔE_CMC(2:1)) of these fabric samples for each color series had linear relationships with the color depths of warp and weft yarns. The color tolerance ellipses indicated that, even though the warp and weft yarns had an apparent color difference, they could be woven in fabrics with relatively uniform color appearance and meet the requirements for yarn-dyed fabric. This work provided valuable insight into the production of qualified yarn-dyed fabrics from unqualified dyed yarns.     

In-situ synthesis of zirconium oxycarbide by electroreduction of ZrO2/C in molten salt

Homogenous ZrC_xO_y powders have been successfully synthesized by in-situ electro-reduction of solid ZrO₂–C composite precursors in molten CaCl₂. The effect of applied cell voltage and molar ratio of ZrO₂ to C on preparation of ZrC_xO_y were investigated. The reduction pathway of the composite electrode was studied based on the analysis of intermediate products using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that ZrO₂ is firstly converted to CaZrO₃. The resulting CaZrO₃ is then reduced to ZrC_xO_y. The ZrC_xO_y formation is dramatically influenced by electrolysis voltage and molar ratio of ZrO₂ to C: a higher cell voltage and lower molar ratio of the ZrO₂ to C are more preferable for the formation of ZrC_xO_y powder. Homogenous ZrC_xO_y powders with particle size of ~100 nm are synthesized by ZrO₂/C starting elemental powders in CaCl₂ molten salt at 1123 K for more than 3 h, when the cell voltage is 3.0 V and the molar ratio of the ZrO₂ to carbon starting materials is 1:1.0.