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Shipping in China plays a global role, and has led worldwide maritime transportation for the last decade. However, without taking national or local port boundaries into account, it is impossible to determine the responsibility that each local authority has on emission controls, nor compare them with land-based emissions to determine the priority for controlling these emissions. In this study, we provide national- to port-level inventories for China. The results show that in 2013, the total emissions of CO, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), SO2 and CO2 were 0.0741 ± 0.0004 Tg∙yr−1, 0.0691 ± 0.0004 Tg∙yr−1, 1.91 ± 0.01 Tg∙yr−1, 0.164 ± 0.001 Tg∙yr−1, 1.30 ± 0.01 Tg∙yr−1 and 86.3 ± 0.3 Tg∙yr−1 in China, respectively. By providing high-resolution spatial distribution maps of these emissions, we identify three hotspots, centered on the Bohai Rim Area, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. These three hotspots account for 8% of the ocean area evaluated in this study, but contribute around 37% of total shipping emissions. Compared with on-road mobile source emissions, NOx and PM emissions from ships are equivalent to about 34% and 29% of the total mobile vehicle emissions in China. Moreover, this study provides detailed emission inventories for 24 ports in the country, which also greatly contributes to our understanding of global shipping emissions, given that eight of these ports rank within the top twenty of the port league table. Several ports in China suffer emissions 12-147 times higher than those at Los Angeles port. The ports of Ningbo-Zhou Shan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dalian dominate the port-level inventories, with individual emissions accounting for 28%-31%, 10%-14%, 10%-12% and 8%-14% of total emissions, respectively.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of PYCR1 and M2-type macrophages on the malignant behaviors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and determine the mechanisms underlying these effects. We induced M2 polarization of macrophages by treating THP-1 cells with interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) and cultured HCC cells with medium conditioned using these macrophages. This co-culture promoted cancer cell invasion, migration, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition, whereas knockdown of pyrroline-5-carboxylic acid reductase 1 (PYCR1) suppressed these malignant behaviors, as well as inhibiting cell proliferation. We further observed that co-culture with M2 macrophage-conditioned medium suppressed apoptosis and ferroptosis of HCC cells; again, PYCR1 knockdown reversed these alterations. In summary, conditioned medium derived from M2 macrophages mediates PYCR1-induced cell proliferation, apoptosis inhibition, and ferroptosis suppression in HCC, ultimately promoting progression of HCC through various signaling pathways. These results indicate the potential of PYCR1 as a therapeutic target for treatment of liver cancer.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) bioceramic scaffolds were fabricated by using digital light processing (DLP) based additive manufacturing. Key issues on the HA bioceramic scaffolds, including dispersion, DLP fabrication, sintering, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility were discussed in detail. Firstly, the effects of dispersant dosage, solid loading, and sintering temperature were studied. The optimal dispersant dosage, solid loading, and sintering temperature were 2 wt%, 50 vol%, and 1250 °C, respectively. Then, the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of the HA bioceramic scaffolds were investigated. The DLP-prepared porous HA bioceramic scaffold was found to exhibit excellent mechanical properties and degradation behavior. From this study, DLP technique shows good potential for manufacturing HA bioceramic scaffolds.

Forest ecosystems play an important role in regional carbon and nitrogen cycling. Accurate and effective monitoring of their soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) stocks provides important information for soil quality assessment, sustainable forestry management and climate change policy making. In this study, a geographical weighted regression (GWR) model, a multiple stepwise regression (MLSR) model, and a boosted regression trees (BRT) model were compared to obtain the best prediction of SOC and STN stocks of the forest ecosystems in northeastern China. Five-hundred and thirteen topsoil (0–30 cm) samples (10.32 kg m−2 (±0.53) for SOC, 1.21 kg m−2 (±0.32) for STN), and 9 remotely-sensed environmental variables were collected and used for the model development and verification. By comparing with independent verification data, the best model (BRT) achieved R2 = 0.56 and root mean square error (RMSE) = 00.85 kg m−2 for SOC stocks, R2 = 0.51 and RMSE = 0.22 kg m−2 for STN stocks. Of all the remotely-sensed environment variables, soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are of the highest relative importance in predicting SOC and STN stocks. The spatial distribution of the predicted SOC and STN stocks gradually decreased from northeast to southwest. This study provides an attempt to rapidly predict SOC and STN stocks in the dense vegetation covered area. The results can help evaluate soil quality and facilitate land policy and regulation making by the government in the region.

Black phosphorus is a two-dimensional material of great interest, in part because of its high carrier mobility and thickness dependent direct bandgap. However, its instability under ambient conditions limits material deposition options for device fabrication. Here we show a black phosphorus ink that can be reliably inkjet printed, enabling scalable development of optoelectronic and photonic devices. Our binder-free ink suppresses coffee ring formation through induced recirculating Marangoni flow, and supports excellent consistency (< 2% variation) and spatial uniformity (< 3.4% variation), without substrate pre-treatment. Due to rapid ink drying (< 10 s at < 60 °C), printing causes minimal oxidation. Following encapsulation, the printed black phosphorus is stable against long-term (> 30 days) oxidation. We demonstrate printed black phosphorus as a passive switch for ultrafast lasers, stable against intense irradiation, and as a visible to near-infrared photodetector with high responsivities. Our work highlights the promise of this material as a functional ink platform for printed devices. Atomically thin black phosphorus shows promise for optoelectronics and photonics, yet its instability under environmental conditions and the lack of well-established large-area synthesis protocols hinder its applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a stable black phosphorus ink suitable for printed ultrafast lasers and photodetectors.

The Jing-Mi Diversion Canal is a large-scale water diversion project in Beijing. Routine monitoring is crucial for the reliability and stability of urban water supply. Compared with traditional monitoring methods, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has the advantages of large scale and high accuracy. Based on the small baseline subset InSAR, 187 ascending and 102 descending SAR images obtained from Sentinel-1 were used to detect the deformation along the diversion canal from 2017 to 2023. The results show that there was a sinking trend along the diversion canal. The subsidence was serious in the first half of the canal, and continued to sink from 2019 to 2020. The subsidence was alleviated in 2023. Combined with leveling measurements, the InSAR deformation monitoring results of important pumping station buildings were verified. The measurement accuracy of InSAR can reach the millimeter level. We extracted the groundwater level time series and subsidence for risky canal segments. Through pixel-by-pixel comparison, it was found that fluctuations in groundwater level would have some impact on surface deformation. Severe local subsidence or uplift deformation occasionally occurred. To ensure the safety of water diversion, the monitoring and maintenance of relevant pump station buildings in risky areas should be increased in the future.

An effective and trustworthy traceability system contributes to improving food quality and safety and responds to consumers' demand for food provenance information. Safe meat and its products are crucial to consumers and society. Livestock feeding regime and geographical origin are closely related to the properties and the safety of animal origin food, but the information is often invisible to consumers, which makes is easier to use fraudulent practices throughout the whole supply chain. Technologies and their proper use in traceability systems are important for the safety of animal origin foods. An essential component in an integrated traceability chain includes individual animal identification and trace back of related meat products. In this review, we examine the technologies for individual animal identification, including the radio frequency identification system and DNA fingerprinting. For meat products, traceability technologies focus on the chemical components fingerprinting, including measurement of stable isotope ratios, mineral element tracing and organic component fingerprinting. Also, future trends in food traceability systems need to be improved to promote the establishment of more efficient and trustworthy traceability systems to ensure food safety and quality up to standard.

Emissions from ships at berth play an important role regarding the exposure of high density human populations to atmospheric pollutants in port areas; however, these emissions are not well understood. In this study, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particle emissions from 20 container ships at berth were sampled and analyzed during the “fuel switch” period at Jingtang Port in Hebei Province, China. VOCs and particles were analyzed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS), respectively. VOC analysis showed that alkanes and aromatics, especially benzene, toluene and heavier compounds e.g., n-heptane, n-octane and n-nonane, dominated the total identified species. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) yields and ozone (O3) forming potential were 0.017 ± 0.007 g SOA g−1 VOCs and 2.63 ± 0.37 g O3 g−1 VOCs, respectively. Both positive and negative ion mass spectra from individual ships were derived and the intensity of specific ions were quantified. Results showed that elemental carbon (35.74 %), elemental carbon–organic carbon mixtures (33.95 %) and Na-rich particles (21.12 %) were major classes, comprising 90.7 % of the particles observed. Particles from ship auxiliary engines were in the 0.2 to 2.5 µm size range, with a peak occurring at around 0.4 µm. The issue of using vanadium (V) as tracer element was examined, and it was found that V was not a proper tracer of ship emissions when using low sulfur content diesel oil. The average percentage of sulfate particles observed in shipping emissions before and after switching to marine diesel oil remained unchanged at 24 %. Under certain wind conditions, when berths were upwind of emission sources, the ratios before and after 1 January were 35 and 27 % respectively. The impact of atmospheric stability was discussed based on PM2.5 and primary pollutant (carbon monoxide) concentration. With a background of frequent haze episodes and complex mechanisms of particulate accumulation and secondary formation, the impact of atmospheric stability is believed to have been weak on the sulfate contribution from shipping emissions. The results from this study provide robust support for port area air quality assessment and source apportionment.

Silicon is expected to become the ideal anode material for the next generation of high energy density lithium battery because of its high theoretical capacity (4200 mAh g−1). However, for silicon electrodes, the initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) is low and the volume of the electrode changes by over 300% after lithiation. The capacity of the silicon electrode decreases rapidly during cycling, hindering the practical application. In this work, a slidable and highly ionic conductive flexible polymer binder with a specific single‐ion structure (abbreviated as SSIP) is presented in which polyrotaxane acts as a dynamic crosslinker. The ionic conducting network is expected to reduce the overall resistance, improve ICE and stabilize the electrode interface. Furthermore, the introduction of slidable polyrotaxane increases the reversible dynamics of the binder and improves the long‐term cycling stability and rate performance. The silicon anode based on SSIP provides a discharge capacity of ≈1650 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles at 0.5C with a high ICE of upto 92.0%. Additionally, the electrode still exhibits a high ICE of 87.5% with an ultra‐high Si loading of 3.84 mg cm−2 and maintains a satisfying areal capacity of 5.9 mAh cm−2 after 50 cycles, exhibiting the potential application of SSIP in silicon‐based anodes. A highly ionic conductive polymer binder with molecular dynamics is designed and exhibits both excellent mechanical performance and satisfactory electrochemical properties. Based on the novel multi‐functional binder, the silicon anode shows reliable performance with a high ICE and reliable performance.

Background The tumor microenvironment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is shaped by complex metabolite-mediated cell-cell communication (mCCC), the functional role of which remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to identify key mCCC pathways in OSCC and elucidate the mechanisms by which tumor cells respond to these metabolic signals. Methods Single-cell RNA sequencing data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were analyzed using the Metabolite-mediated cell communication modeling by single-cell transcriptome algorithm to identify mCCC events. High-dimensional weighted gene co-expression network analysis (hdWGCNA), in combination with the Mime algorithm, was employed to construct prognostic models and screen for core genes. Enhancer regions were identified by analyzing histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data from the GEO database. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative PCR was performed to validate H3K27ac and transcription factor enrichment at these enhancers. M2 macrophages were cultured under glutamine-deprived conditions to generate conditioned medium. OSCC cells treated with L-methionine-DL-sulfoximine were cultured in M2 macrophage-derived conditioned medium, and cell proliferation and invasion were assessed using Cell Counting Kit-8 and Transwell assays. Results Glutamine secretion from M2 macrophages to tumor cells, mediated by SLC38A5, was identified as the core mCCC pathway upregulated in metastatic OSCC lesions. Knockdown of SLC38A5 significantly inhibited the uptake of M2 macrophage-derived glutamine by OSCC cells, thereby suppressing their proliferation and invasion. CNIH4 was identified as a key effector mediating the response of OSCC cells to M2 macrophage-derived glutamine. Mechanistically, the transcriptional activation of CNIH4 was driven by the direct binding of the transcription factor FOXM1 to its enhancer. Notably, M2 macrophage-derived glutamine upregulated the activity of the CNIH4 enhancer and promoted FOXM1 recruitment in a coordinated manner. Overexpression of CNIH4 rescued the impaired proliferation and invasion induced by FOXM1 knockdown, an effect dependent on the uptake of M2 macrophage-derived glutamine. Conclusions In the OSCC microenvironment, glutamine derived from M2 macrophages is taken up by tumor cells through SLC38A5. This process enhances FOXM1 binding to the CNIH4 enhancer, thereby activating CNIH4 expression and promoting OSCC cell proliferation and invasion. Targeting the glutamine/SLC38A5/FOXM1/CNIH4 axis may offer a rational strategy for mCCC-based precision therapy.