bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The impact of hazardous substances in cosmetics, and treatment measures
Authors: Chen Xun , Li Xinyi
Published: April 2022

Humans have studied numerous environmental pollution issues and improved treatment in the past, but few people are aware that cosmetics are also potential environmental pollution factors. This article first discusses that most cosmetics contain hazardous substances, and then examines the effects of these hazardous substances on the natural environment, organisms, and humans. According to studies, cosmetics primarily contain heavy metals, organics, and other hazardous substances, which can pollute the environment’s water and soil, limit organism reproduction and growth, and cause a variety of physiological ailments in humans. The article then proposes two technologies for effectively treating hazardous substances in cosmetics: biosorbent and activated carbon fiber-polyethersulfone (ACF-PES) ultrafiltration composite membrane, both of which adsorb and effectively degrade hazardous substances via their respective physical and chemical properties. Moreover, this article examines the necessity and feasibility of measures for the government, corporations, and the general public to participate in the treatment of hazardous substances in cosmetics. Legislation to regulate and supervise cosmetics production should be strengthened by the government. Corporations should manufacture green cosmetics and promote the use of green cosmetics. To limit the impact of hazardous substances in cosmetics, the general public can employ strategies such as using less or purchasing cosmetics containing less dangerous substances. The article promotes a greater understanding of the dangers of harmful substances in cosmetics and offers some suggestions for reducing their effects.
Study on cooperative treatment of natural gas pipeline cleaning wastewater and membrane module
Authors: Jing-dongYang  , Ji Shou-hong
Published: April 2022

Membrane module and pigging wastewater are common pollutants in natural gas transmission process. The treatment of these pollutants is difficult. In this paper, ultrasonic (US), persulfate (PS) and ultrasonic coupled persulfate were used to degrade organic matter in natural gas cleaning wastewater. The effects of pH, initial PS concentration, ultrasonic power, PS dosing batch and other factors on chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation efficiency of pigging wastewater were investigated. The experimental results show that the optimal treatment effect can be obtained when the dosage of sodium PS is 80g/L, pH=4, the dosing number is 5, and the ultrasonic power is 840 W. After 6 h of reaction, the removal rate of COD can reach 80.08 %. Considering the synergistic treatment of the ultrasonic coupling PS on the solid-liquid pollutant, we adjust the ultrasonic power to 55W (frequency is 40kHz), pH=4.5, dosing twice (total dosage 150mg/L), and the final COD concentration below 100mg/L. However, when pre-ultrasonic activated persulfate in clear water, COD removal rate can reach 95.35 %, which can meet the effluent requirements.
The Hazards of Electric Car Batteries and Their Recycling
Authors: Wan Taotianchen , Wang Yikai
Published: April 2022

In recent years, under the double pressure of energy exhaustion and environmental deterioration, the development of electric vehicles has become the major development trend of the automotive industry in the future. This paper discusses the problem of abandoned batteries caused by the limited life of a large number of batteries with the prosperity of new energy vehicle industry. This paper lists and analyzes the different characteristics of batteries commonly used by three new energy vehicles in the market :(1) lead-acid batteries will not leak in the use process due to tight sealing, but their use cycle is very short. (2) The production of nickel metal hydride battery is relatively mature, its production cost is low, and compared with lithium electronic battery is safer. (3) Lithium-ion batteries are made of non-toxic materials, which makes them known as “green batteries”. However, they are expensive to make and have poor compatibility with other batteries. Because discarded batteries pose a threat to human health and environmental sustainability, lithium-ion batteries may overheat and fire when exposed to high temperatures or when penetrated, releasing carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide that can be very harmful to human health. In addition, waste batteries will also cause water pollution and inhibit the growth and reproduction of aquatic organisms and other potential dangers. Therefore, it is necessary to recycle it efficiently. This paper then introduces the advantages of three recycling methods: step utilization and recovery, ultrasonic recovery and sodium ion battery. These recycling methods can maximize the reuse efficiency of waste batteries. This paper expects to find a better way to recycle waste batteries to solve the potential problems of improper disposal of waste batteries and reduce the environmental hazards of waste batteries.
Multi-angle Analysis of Electric Vehicles Battery Recycling and Utilization
Authors: Wang Shuli
Published: April 2022

Under the dual pressure of resource and environment, electric vehicles (EVs) will gradually replace fuel vehicles as a new trend. Among them, the recycling and utilization of EV batteries have attracted much attention. This article indicates the classification of EV batteries and the importance of battery recycling, and proposes some measures to recycle batteries. The research in this paper shows that the current EV batteries mainly include lead-acid batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries, lithium-ion batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries, and ternary lithium batteries. It was emphasized that heavy metals leaked from waste batteries cannot be normally degraded by microorganisms in water bodies and soil, and heavy metals can endanger human health through the food chain through water bodies, plants, animals, etc. At the same time, the recycling of precious metals and valuable metals in the battery can realize resource recycling. Faced with the problems in the EV battery recycling and utilization industry, the customers should strengthen their awareness of battery recycling. The enterprises should work closely with other related enterprises to form a more complete battery recycling industry chain. The government should issue policies and regulations for supervision and management. And the recycling system for battery recycling, cascade utilization, and resource reuse should be improved. This article provides a way to maximize the utilization of EV battery resources, reduce the adverse impact on the environment, and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible.
Thermogravimetric analysis of the co-combustion of bituminous coal,rice straw and sewage sludge
Authors: Qin Zhiming , Lei Ming , Zhang Lei
Published: April 2022

At present, it is recognized as the most promising way to dispose biomass by mixed combustion with coal in thermal power plants. The thermal behavior of bituminous coal (BC), rice straw (RS) , sewage sludge (SS) and their blending during combustion processes was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in this paper. RS and SS are blended with BC at the ratios of 10%, 20%, and 30% respectively, The ignition performance, combustion characteristics and burnout performance of BC mixture were investigated and compared. RS improves the ignition performance and the comprehensive combustion characteristics of BC mixture, the comprehensive characteristic index decreased with the increase of the RS blending ratio. SS decreases the flammability index and comprehensive combustion index of BC mixture, when the blending rates over 20%, which makes difficult the ignition and combustion of the BC mixture.
Practical research on the modular equipment for the treatment of rural decentralized domestic sewage
Authors: Xue Xingfu
Published: April 2022

The research and application of the modular equipment for decentralized domestic sewage treatment based on the technologies of anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic and membrane bioreactor methods are carried out and the result shows that the technical and economic indexes at each stage of the study all meet and exceed the first class A emission standard of urban sewage treatment pollutant emission standard(GB18918-2002). The concept of decentralized treatment offers great potential for developing sustainable environmental protection and energy conservation, decentralized sewage control and management will result in significant savings in capital and operating costs for drainage networks and pumping stations especially in water-scarce areas. Decentralized wastewater treatment should be regarded as an important concept of municipal wastewater treatment and a feasible treatment program. Decentralized wastewater treatment technology has a broad development prospect in the future wastewater treatment field.
Effects of freshwater acidification and countermeasures
Authors: Chen Changan , Lin Juntong , Liu Yuhang , Ren Xiangru
Published: April 2022

Nowadays, pollution has become a serious problem with the development of industry and the exploitation of the earth’s resources. Acid rain and lake acidification caused by pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide has caused serious effects in many places. Nowadays people do not know the ecological influence of acidification, how to detect it and how it recovers. This paper examines the effects of acid rain on fish, plants and microorganisms in freshwater lakes, as well as how to detect acid rain and how to manage and recover from it. The results are not always clear, but there is a lot of evidence that acidification is changing lakes in many aspects, whether living or non-living things, small or widespread factors, acidified freshwater is no longer what it used to be. By examining those problems, people can protect the environment more effectively. Reducing the occurrence of acid rain and the damage it causes in the future. The significance of this paper is analyzing the ecological influence of acid rain, studying and discussing the negative impact on species, and giving some solutions for people, governments and companies for acidification. Furthermore, lake water self-cleaning is also considered in the solution as well. Acid rain causes acidification of the soil, which has a negative impact on agriculture. And it also damages the breeding environment of animals, reducing their reproductive success. For example, fish, microorganisms, and plants can be negatively affected by acidification of the lake water, even leading to extinction.
Evaluation of non-point source pollution based on grey water footprint method: A case study in the urban agglomeration of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou
Authors: Wu Hongyan , Yu Shujie , Yue Wencong , Rong Qiangqiang
Published: April 2022

Based on a grey water footprint method, NPS pollution in the urban agglomeration of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou was evaluated in this research. The results showed that the NPS pollution level in this urban agglomeration decreased from 1995 to 2019. The grey water footprint of NPS pollution in the cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou had similar variation characteristic, which showed a trend of first increasing, then decreasing, and finally increasing during the research period. The largest source of grey water footprint of NPS pollution was land use, followed by livestock and poultry breeding. The water pollution level of NPS pollution was highest in Shenzhen and lowest in Huizhou, which was in the same order as gross domestic product (GDP) in this agglomeration. Thus, city governments should attach more importance to prevention and control of NPS pollution in the process of economic development, especially for land use source.
Evolution, Causes and Influence Factors of Taal Volcanic Activities
Authors: Bai Xinyuan , Xie Shaojing , Zhu Yanjun
Published: April 2022

Volcanoes are a kind of geological feature which can bring both destruction and wealth to human beings. This study takes the eruption of Taal Volcano on January 12, 2020 as an example to analyze its eruption evolution, causes and influence factors via QGIS software. Taal Volcano lies at the southwestern end of a convergent boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea tectonic plates where volcanic activities are frequent. Results show that the evolution of the eruption consists of increased CO2 flux, seismic swarms, phreatic explosion chronically. The origin of the volcano is the subduction of the oceanic plate and terrestrial plate. Volcanic eruptions are mostly due to pressurization by active convergent plates activities. The eruption emitted tephra and gas, which exerted impacts on the atmosphere, the nearby vegetation and the water body, and was predicted to result in an El Nino. High concentration of particles, dispersed tephra output, a sharp increase in SO2 and CO content, variation in atmospheric ozone, and rise in humidity were observed in the atmosphere following the eruption. The volcanic output wiped out the plant cover on the volcano island, and covered the vegetation outside of the volcano island, as shown in the RGB band composite and land cover change monitoring images generated using QGIS from Sentinel-2 data. The volcanic output’s influences on nearby water bodies were shown through drops in ocean salinity and Taal lake’s PH, variation in ocean temperature, and increased ocean’s surface latent heat flux.
The Environmental Impacts and High-Effective Solutions of Invasion of Water Hyacinth
Authors: Wang Yajun
Published: April 2022

Water hyacinth is a fast growing and floating aquatic plant native to South America. Water hyacinth is extremely invasive and its high reproduction rate causes water pollution, waterway closure, and death of aquatic organisms. Based on past studies linked to water hyacinth invasion, this paper first analyzes the features of water hyacinth and the effects of excessive growth. Then, they synthesize and assess the effective and efficient solutions to the ecological hazard of water hyacinth invasion from the domains of technology, government, human, and enterprises. In terms of technology, they recommend the authorities adopt water hyacinth removal machines that may also be utilized for animal feed production. The adoption of anaerobic methods to convert water hyacinth leaves into biogas for power generation is also appropriate, as is replacing existing traditional herbicide types with novel herbicide structures. The government should strengthen legal restrictions, prohibit commercial water hyacinth trafficking, and minimize industrial wastewater discharge. Finally, the research revealed that these methods may effectively decrease the environmental destruction caused by the water hyacinth invasion. Therefore, people should enhance the treatment of water hyacinth invasion hazards in order to control the ecology of the watershed and minimize wastewater discharge.
Zoning Study on the Influence of Sluice Operation on Flood Drainage of Plain River Network
Authors: Fang Zhihao , Li Dongfeng , Wang Yanfei , Hu Donghui , Li Zihao
Published: April 2022

The drainage of river network in Yaobei plain is of great significance to the social and economic development of Yuyao and Ningbo. Linhai Pujiang gate and Taojia Road gate are two important gates for drainage of the river network in Yaobei plain. With the different time of opening the gate for dispatching, the water level reduction values of different towns, streets and communities in the river network are different. If the water level decline in the river network area is classified according to a certain way, the impact degree and impact range of sluice drainage on river network drainage can be studied, so as to classify and partition the impact of drainage according to the degree of impact, township streets can formulate different drainage countermeasures. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the impact of gate operation on river network drainage. In order to fully study the flood drainage function of the sea gate of Yaobei plain river network, based on the preliminary establishment and verification of the plane two-dimensional mathematical model of Yuyao plain river network, this paper calculates the changes of water level and velocity in different areas of towns and streets of Yuyao river network with time and region after the flood drainage operation of the gate for 7 hours under different conditions, according to the range of water level drop of 0.05m and different numerical ranges, this paper classifies the influence areas of large gate drainage on Yaobei river network drainage, and obtains seven partitions of the influence of large gate dispatching on Yaobei river network drainage. According to this partition, the regional river network drainage countermeasures are preliminarily analyzed, which provides a reference basis for the drainage decision-making of township streets.
Construction risk evaluation of power mass entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration park under collaborative innovation
Authors: Luo Peng , Jia Xuefeng
Published: April 2022

The power mass entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration park (PMEIDP) provides an incubation and transformation platform and the environment by converging resources such as technology, capital, and demand to promote regional economic development. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of further promoting systematic innovation and efficient use of resources from the perspective of collaborative innovation. Firstly, we build a risk indicators system for the construction risk evaluation of the PMEIDP. Secondly, we adopt the mutual information coefficient (MIC) to simplify the construction risk indicators. Thirdly, we train the fuzzy neural network (FNN) for the risk evaluation of the PMEIDP. Finally, we conduct a case analysis of 5 PMEIDP and provide support for the management of the future development and construction of the PMEIDP.
The Effects of Climate Change on Birds and Approaches to Response
Authors: Li Xiaohan , Liu Yang , Zhu Yuhui
Published: April 2022

Complex changes in climate change have caused numerous changes, such as rising temperature and increasing in precipitation frequency, representing dynamic environmental changes for birds. It results in birds’ responses, such as changes in migration routes. To better understand the responses, the study aims to reveal the impacts of climate change on birds’ behavior and proper approaches toward addressing its effects. The study shows that climate change has caused advanced spring migration, changes in birds’ habitat, higher possibility of disease transmission, earlier egg-laying time, less food availability, and a decline in the bird population. The study also lists possible measures to mitigate climate change’s influence, including environmental policies, partnership with non-government organizations, and decreasing greenhouse emissions. In the future, people should consider identifying knowledge gaps of the link between climate change birds from efforts of interdisciplinarity and multi-academic fields. The same approach also applies to plausible solutions exploration. The study provides a comprehensive summary of the effects of climate change on birds, as well as briefly illustrates the current approaches to mitigate its impacts. It increases the awareness of climate change’s impacts for the present generation, in turn encouraging them to take progressive actions to address the problem for the future generation.
Interstitial doping of K and Mn induced structural distortion and electronic properties changes in all‐inorganic CsPbI2Br perovskite
Authors: Xue Hong-Tao , Hu Zhong-Lin , Luo Ya-Qiao , An Jun-Peng , Tang Fu-Ling
Published: April 2022

CsPbI2Br and its derivatives are promising light harvesters for all-inorganic perovskite photovoltaic devices, whereas the effects of doping on local lattice structures and electronic properties of CsPbI2Br remain unclear. Here the structural distortion and the electronic properties changes of CsPbI2Br caused by the interstitial alkali-metal K and transition-metal Mn dopants were investigated from first-principles calculations. The bond lengths, bond angles, distortion magnitude and volume of both PbI4Br2 octahedrons and dopant-occupied octahedral interstices, as well as density of states and crystal orbital Hamilton population were provided. We found that both the PbI4Br2 octahedrons neighboring to Mn atom and the Mn-occupied octahedral interstice undergo a more significant structural distortion than those in the K-doped CsPbI2Br. Contrary to the exothermic K-doping, the endothermic Mn-doping reduces the volume of Mn-occupied octahedral interstice by shrinking Mn-Br-I atomic plane and elongating Cs-Cs interatomic distance. The interstitial K-doping has little effect on the position and orbital component of valance band (VB) maximum and conduction band (CB) minimum of CsPbI2Br, while the interstitial Mn-doping can not only shift up the VB edge by 0.41 eV but also introduce new unoccupied gap states (Mn-3d states) at the CB edge.
Experimental study on dynamic recrystallization of titanium alloy Ti6Al4V at different strain rates
Authors: Liu Lijuan , Wu Wenge , Zhao Yongjuan , Cheng Yunping , Xiaojun Du , Ma Shuai
Published: April 2022

The dynamic recrystallization condition and law of Ti6Al4V alloy at all strain rates are investigated through thermal processing simulation test, split Hopkinson compression bar test and milling test. The theoretical calculation of the experimental results and the microstructure observation showed that the dynamic recrystallization become possible under the conditions of high strain rate and low strain rate. The model uses two expressions to describe the material constitutive characteristics of different critical strain value intervals; the subprogram written in Fortran language is imported into AdvantEdge FEM software, and the finite element analysis of John-Cook constitutive and improved constitutive is carried out respectively. The comparative study of simulation proves that the improved constitutive equation is closer to the high temperature and high impact environment of high-speed cutting of titanium alloy, which has certain guiding significance for high-speed cutting of titanium alloy.
A simple derivative spectrophotometric method for simultaneously detecting nitrate and nitrite in plasma treated water
Authors: XU Liangsheng , WU Huihong , WANG Xin , CHEN Qiang , OSTRIKOV Kostya (Ken)
Published: April 2022

A spectrophotometric technique is developed to simultaneously quantify nitrate and nitrite in plasma treated water. The measurement is based on examining the inflection points (wavelengths) in the derivative absorbance of the nitrate or nitrite solution. At the inflection points of the pure nitrate solution, the derivative absorbance is zero and independent of the nitrate’s concentration, and thus the nitrite’s concentration in a mixed nitrate and nitrite solution can be obtained by using the Beer’s law at these points. The nitrate’s concentration can also be achieved from the inflection points of nitrite in the same manner. The relation between the tested substance’s (nitrate or nitrite) concentration and the second- or the third-order absorbances is obtained at these inflection points. Test measurements for mixed aqueous solutions of nitrate and nitrite with or without hydrogen peroxide confirm the reliability of this technique. We applied this technique to quantify the nitrate and nitrite generated in air plasma treated aqueous solutions. The results indicate that both nitrate and nitrite concentrations increase with the plasma treatment time, and the nitrite species is found to be generated prior to the nitrate species in the air plasma treated aqueous solution. Moreover, the production rate of total nitrogen species is independent of the solutions’ pH value. These results are relevant to diverse applications of plasma activated solutions in materials processing, biotechnology, medicine and other fields.
Recent progresses of organic photonic synaptic transistors
Authors: Deng Zhonghui , Zhou Bosheng , Xu Yunchao , Jin Chenxing , Liu Wanrong , Liu Biao , Sun Jia , Yang Junliang
Published: April 2022

The use of electronic devices to emulate the unique properties of biological synapses is regarded as the key for the development of the artificial intelligence era to replace the conventional von Neumann’s computing systems. Nowadays, many electronic devices have been proposed to simulate synaptic functions. However, organic photonic synaptic transistors (OPSTs) arise as an ideal candidate due to their comparative advantages, including the facile preparation process, the easy integration, and the tunable optoelectronic properties than the other devices configurations. As a result, they have attracted tremendous attention. Along these lines, in this review, the structure, working principle and synaptic function of the OPSTs are introduced in detail, while several common channel materials and their working mechanism are listed. Finally, the latest progress in the related application fields is introduced, and the perspectives for the future development of photonic synaptic transistors.
A detailed performance analysis of a novel UWB flexible monopole antenna realized with airbrush technique for different technologies
Authors: Geyikoglu Mirac Dilruba , Cavusoglu Bulent
Published: April 2022

In this article, a detailed performance analysis of a novel flexible monopole antenna with a 141.46% impedance bandwidth in the 2.4–14 GHz ultrawideband (UWB) range is present. The antenna is fabricated on a flexible Kapton substrate with compact geometry for different technology applications under different bending conditions. The airbrush printed technique was preferred due to its advantages such as easy production, conductivity control, and no loss of surface waves. The antenna has dimensions of 82 × 57 × 0.125 mm3 and is fed by a coplanar waveguide transmission line. All necessary antenna simulations are performed using Computer Simulation Technology (CST). According to the positions of identical antennas face to face, face to side, side to side, time-domain analysis is performed for the impact response analysis. The transmission coefficient characteristics (S
21) and the group delay are measured for various bending conditions. Time and frequency domain analyzes show that the proposed UWB antenna has the much-needed stable performance in UWB antenna. The proposed UWB antenna has good performance over the operating spectrum for a flat and bending configuration.
Fully solution-processed, light-weight, and ultraflexible organic solar cells
Authors: Güler Ezgi Nur , Distler Andreas , Basu Robin , Brabec Christoph J , Egelhaaf Hans-Joachim
Published: April 2022

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have the potential to be superior to other PV technologies for the use in applications that require very high flexibility or maximum specific power (power-per-weight ratio), such as textile integration, wearable electronics, or outer space applications. However, OPV devices also require encapsulation by barrier films to reduce the degradation driven by extrinsic factors, which in turn limits their flexibility and leads to lower specific power values. In this work, fully solution-processed (including both electrodes) semitransparent organic solar cells (OSCs) with performance comparable with conventional indium tin oxide-based devices are processed directly onto different barrier films of varying thicknesses. Direct cell fabrication onto barrier films leads to the elimination of the additional polyethylene terephthalate substrate and one of the two adhesive layers in the final stack of an encapsulated OPV device by replacing the industrial state-of-the-art sandwich encapsulation with a top-only encapsulation process, which yields significantly thinner and lighter ‘product-relevant’ PV devices. In addition to the increase of the specific power to 0.38 W g−1, which is more than four times higher than sandwich-encapsulated devices, these novel OSCs exhibit better flexibility and survive 5000 bending cycles with 4.5 mm bending radius. Moreover, the devices show comparable stability as conventionally encapsulated devices under constant illumination (1 sun) in ambient air for 1000 h. Finally, degradation under damp heat conditions (65 °C, 85% rh) was investigated and found to be determined by a combination of different factors, namely (UV) light soaking, intrinsic barrier properties, and potential damaging of the barriers during (laser) processing.
Responses of vegetation growth to climate change over the Tibetan Plateau from 1982 to 2018
Authors: Li Xi , Zhang Ke , Li Xin
Published: April 2022

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays a critical role in Earth’s climate system and is highly sensitive to global warming. However, comprehensive analysis of the interaction between various climatic factors and vegetation growth across the TP is still limited. Using daily normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) series interpolated from the 16-day satellite measurements and climatic data during 1982–2018, we investigated the spatiotemporal changes in growing season NDVI (NDVIGS) and associated climatic drivers over the TP and analyzed the responses of NDVIGS to climatic drivers for different vegetation types. Our results show that NDVIGS of the TP as a whole exhibits a significant rising trend (0.0011 year−1; P < 0.01) from 1982 to 2018. However, trends in NDVIGS show apparent spatial heterogeneity over the TP with higher growth rates in forests (trend = 0.012 de−1; P < 0.01) and shrubs (trend = 0.009 de−1; P < 0.01) in the east and southeast than in alpine steppe (trend = 0.003 de−1; P < 0.01) and alpine meadow (trend = 0.006 de−1; P < 0.01) in the west and north. Air temperature, precipitation, and VPD serve as the dominant climatic factor affecting the NDVIGS trends in 62%, 19%, and 12% of the TP, respectively. Additionally, climatic factors show differential impacts on NDVIGS among different vegetation types. Air temperature has a predominantly positive correlation with NDVIGS for all vegetation types, while precipitation has a negative impact on plant growth in the eastern humid forest region but a generally positive impact in the other areas. Our results also highlight that the effect of VPD on NDVIGS varies among different vegetation types. These findings contribute to a systematic understanding of the possible mechanisms underlying the responses of vegetation growth to various climatic drivers across the TP.
Impacts of changing snowfall on seasonal complementarity of hydroelectric and solar power
Authors: Marshall Adrienne M , Chen Jie M
Published: April 2022

Complementarity of variable renewable energy sources at multiple temporal scales is important in order to ensure reliability of a decarbonizing energy system. In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that a decrease in the fraction of precipitation falling as snow (SWE/P) would increase monthly complementarity of hydro and solar power generation in the western U.S. With a focus on 123 dams responsible for 93% of generation, we found that these resources are seasonally complementary at about half of dams, as indicated by the sign of correlation coefficients (ρ). As hypothesized, average SWE/P at individual dams was generally positively correlated with ρ, but the dependence of ρ on SWE/P was non-linear and SWE/P only explained a modest portion of the variance in complementarity. At each dam, the dependence of annual ρ on interannual variations in SWE/P between 2002–2020 was assessed; these relationships were positive at 72% of dams but not statistically significant at the level of individual dams. Finally, at the system scale ρ was significantly related to SWE/P, with a stronger relationship observed than the dependence of total hydropower generation on SWE/P. Notably, the system-scale relationship between ρ and SWE/P changed dramatically in the latter part of the temporal domain (2012–2020), with a much steeper slope and greater fraction of variance explained by SWE/P. These results illustrate the historical relationship between SWE/P, monthly complementarity of hydro and solar power, complexities of these relationships due to snow and watershed hydrology and reservoir management, and a change in the observed relationship between SWE/P and hydropower generation timing. To the extent that hydro and solar power generation complementarity is responsive to SWE/P, expected declines in SWE/P may indicate greater seasonal complementarity but reduced hydropower available for load-balancing when solar power generation is highest.
A Radon-Nikodym theorem for nonlinear functionals on Banach lattices
Authors: Feldman William
Published: April 2022

A Radon-Nikodym theorem is established for a class of nonlinear orthogonally additive monotone functionals on Dedekind complete Banach lattices. A functional

S
S

is absolutely continuous with respect to

T
T

if

T
(
f
)
=
0

T(f) =0

implies

S
(
f
)
=
0

S( f)=0

for

f
f

in the domain. It is shown that

S
S

is absolutely continuous with respect to

T
T

implies

S
S

is equal to the composition of an extension of

T
T

with an appropriate generalized orthomorphism. In the special case that

S
S

and

T
T

are linear, the generalized orthomorphism reduces to a multiplication operator consistent with the classical formulation of this theorem.
Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Plastic Surgery Patients Undergoing Facelift
Authors: Gupta Rohun , John Jithin , Gupta Monik , Shaheen Kenneth
Published: April 2022

Background

In 2011, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons approved the Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Task Force Report, which recommended the use of the Caprini scoring system, which has been adopted for VTE prophylaxis by most surgical societies in America.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients undergoing facelifts at a single institution who did not undergo VTE chemoprophylaxis based on the Caprini scoring system.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients who underwent facelift at a single institution. Patients were included if they were operated on between 2016 and 2021 by the lead surgeon and excluded if they received VTE prophylaxis. Descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the collected data.

Results

In total, 136 patients were isolated after chart review, and no patients were found to have had DVT or VTE. The average Caprini score was 5.625 and ranged from 3 to 10. There were 3 patients with evidence of postoperative hematoma (Caprini score = 5, 5, 7). The overall hematoma percentage was 2.21%.

Conclusions

Based on the average Caprini score for the patients, all patients should have received VTE chemoprophylaxis. The authors found no VTE-related events in the patients without chemoprophylaxis. This study suggests that while the Caprini scoring system is a critical diagnostic tool for certain surgical procedures, it might not be optimal in predicting VTE in aesthetic patients undergoing surgical procedures.

Level of Evidence: 4
Measurement of changes in CO2 generated from propionate in Caenorhabditis elegans using novel 13CO2 gas analysis
Authors: Miura Kiyoshi , Yamaguchi Hiroki , Miyata Keita , Miyada Tomihiro
Published: April 2022

Caenorhabditis elegans contains two pathways for propionate metabolism, the vitamin B12-dependent and shunt pathways, which are similar to those in humans. In this study, we monitored the changes in propionate metabolism in the whole body of C. elegans using novel 13CO2 gas analysis. We measured the increase in 13CO2 excreted in the air after administering [1-13C]-labeled propionate ([13C]propionate) to the worms. The 13CO2 generated from [13C]propionate in C. elegans increased in a dose-dependent manner, reaching a maximum at 48 h. Enhanced expression of propionate metabolism-related genes was observed after administration of propionate. Knockdown of mmcm-1, which encodes the rate-limiting enzyme of the propionate metabolism, using RNAi reduced 13CO2 excretion. Thus, 13CO2 gas analysis could be confirmed 13CO2 excretion associated with changes in the metabolism of [13C]propionate in nematodes. This analysis can contribute to further understanding of the physiological effects of short-chain fatty acids.
TRANSDIRE: data-driven direct reprogramming by a pioneer factor-guided trans-omics approach
Authors: Eguchi Ryohei , Hamano Momoko , Iwata Michio , Nakamura Toru , Oki Shinya , Yamanishi Yoshihiro
Published: April 2022

Motivation

Direct reprogramming involves the direct conversion of fully differentiated mature cell types into various other cell types while bypassing an intermediate pluripotent state (e.g. induced pluripotent stem cells). Cell differentiation by direct reprogramming is determined by two types of transcription factors (TFs): pioneer factors (PFs) and cooperative TFs. PFs have the distinct ability to open chromatin aggregations, assemble a collective of cooperative TFs and activate gene expression. The experimental determination of two types of TFs is extremely difficult and costly.

Results

In this study, we developed a novel computational method, TRANSDIRE (TRANS-omics-based approach for DIrect REprogramming), to predict the TFs that induce direct reprogramming in various human cell types using multiple omics data. In the algorithm, potential PFs were predicted based on low signal chromatin regions, and the cooperative TFs were predicted through a trans-omics analysis of genomic data (e.g. enhancers), transcriptome data (e.g. gene expression profiles in human cells), epigenome data (e.g. chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data) and interactome data. We applied the proposed methods to the reconstruction of TFs that induce direct reprogramming from fibroblasts to six other cell types: hepatocytes, cartilaginous cells, neurons, cardiomyocytes, pancreatic cells and Paneth cells. We demonstrated that the methods successfully predicted TFs for most cell conversions with high accuracy. Thus, the proposed methods are expected to be useful for various practical applications in regenerative medicine.

Availability and implementation

The source code and data are available at the following website: http://figshare.com/s/b653781a5b9e6639972b

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
MitoVisualize: a resource for analysis of variants in human mitochondrial RNAs and DNA
Authors: Lake Nicole J , Zhou Lily , Xu Jenny , Lek Monkol
Published: April 2022

We present MitoVisualize, a new tool for analysis of the human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). MitoVisualize enables visualization of: (i) the position and effect of variants in mitochondrial transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA secondary structures alongside curated variant annotations, (ii) data across RNA structures, such as to show all positions with disease-associated variants or with post-transcriptional modifications and (iii) the position of a base, gene or region in the circular mtDNA map, such as to show the location of a large deletion. All visualizations can be easily downloaded as figures for reuse. MitoVisualize can be useful for anyone interested in exploring mtDNA variation, though is designed to facilitate mtDNA variant interpretation in particular.

Availability and implementation

MitoVisualize can be accessed via https://www.mitovisualize.org/. The source code is available at https://github.com/leklab/mito_visualize/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Comparing the maternal-fetal microbiome of humans and cattle: a translational assessment of the reproductive, placental, and fetal gut microbiomes
Authors: Hummel Gwendolynn L , Austin Kathleen , Cunningham-Hollinger Hannah C
Published: April 2022

Despite differences in gut physiology and morphology, both humans and cattle require a functional gut microbiome in early life. Evidence suggests that both species acquire gut microbes prior to birth, likely from a maternal source, indicating the use of similar mechanisms and timing for fetal gut colonization. Unlike mouse models, cattle share a similar gestation length, parity, and placental microbiome characteristics to humans. The large size of calves allow for contamination-protected sampling of the gut, vagina, and uterus, which would typically require invasive procedures in human cohorts. The ruminant placenta also exhibits a larger degree of separation between maternal and fetal physiology, necessitating a direct and explicit route by which microbes may access the fetal gut. These and other features permit cattle to act as a translational model for early gut colonization. However, cattle do not share similar placental morphology, gut function, or early immune system interactions with humans, creating barriers to their use as a biomedical model. Identifying similarities and differences between humans and cattle may outline the most important functions of the placental and fetal gut microbiomes, indicate the source of these microbes, and highlight the role of maternal or environmental influences upon fetal health across species.
Altered alpha and theta oscillations correlate with sequential working memory in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Ye Zheng , Heldmann Marcus , Herrmann Lisa , Brüggemann Norbert , Münte Thomas F
Published: April 2022

Daily activities such as preparing a meal rely on the ability to arrange thoughts and actions in the right order. Patients with Parkinson’s disease have difficulties in sequencing tasks. Their deficits in sequential working memory have been associated with basal ganglia dysfunction. Here we demonstrate that altered parietal alpha and theta oscillations correlate with sequential working memory in Parkinson’s disease. We included 15 patients with Parkinson’s disease (6 women, mean age: 66.0 years), 24 healthy young (14 women, mean age: 24.1 years), and 16 older participants (7 women, mean age: 68.6 years). All participants completed a picture ordering task with scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, where they arranged five pictures in a specific order and memorized them over a delay. When encoding and maintaining picture sequences, patients with Parkinson’s disease showed a lower baseline alpha peak frequency with higher alpha power than healthy young and older participants. Patients with a higher baseline alpha power responded more slowly for ordered trials. When manipulating picture sequences, patients with Parkinson’s disease showed a lower frequency of maximal power change for random versus ordered trials than healthy young and older participants. Healthy older participants showed a higher frequency of maximal power change than healthy young participants. Compared with patients with frequency of maximal power change in the alpha band (8–15 Hz), patients with frequency of maximal power change in the theta band (4–7 Hz) showed a higher ordering-related accuracy cost (random versus ordered) in the main task and tended to respond more slowly and less accurately in an independent working memory test. In conclusion, altered baseline alpha oscillations and task-dependent modulation of alpha and theta oscillations may be neural markers of poor sequential working memory in Parkinson’s disease.
Investigation of a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Delta (B.1.617.2) Variant Outbreak Among Residents of a Skilled Nursing Facility and Vaccine Effectiveness Analysis: Maricopa County, Arizona, June–July 2021
Authors: Dale Ariella P , Almendares Olivia , Howard Brandon J , Burnett Eleanor , Prasai Siru , Arons Melissa , Collins Jennifer , Duffy Nadezdha , Pandit Urvashi , Brady Shane , White Jessica R , Garrett Brenna , Kirking Hannah L , Sunenshine Rebecca , Tate Jacqueline E , Scott Sarah E
Published: April 2022

Background

Short-term rehabilitation units present unique infection control challenges because of high turnover and medically complex residents. In June 2021, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health was notified of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Delta outbreak in a skilled nursing facility short-term rehabilitation unit. We describe the outbreak and assess vaccine effectiveness (VE).

Methods

Facility electronic medical records were reviewed for residents who spent > 1 night on the affected unit between June 10 and July 23, 2021, to collect demographics, SARS-CoV-2 test results, underlying medical conditions, vaccination status, and clinical outcomes. Coronavirus disease 2019 VE estimates using Cox proportional hazards models were calculated.

Results

Forty (37%) of 109 short-stay rehabilitation unit residents who met inclusion criteria tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2-positive case-patients were mostly male (58%) and White (78%) with a median age of 65 (range, 27-92) years; 11 (27%) were immunocompromised. Of residents, 39% (10 cases, 32 noncases) received 2 doses and 9% (4 cases, 6 noncases) received 1 dose of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Among nonimmunocompromised residents, adjusted 2-dose primary-series mRNA VE against symptomatic infection was 80% (95% confidence interval, 15-95). More cases were hospitalized (33%) or died (38%) than noncases (10% hospitalized; 16% died).

Conclusions

In this large SARS-CoV-2 Delta outbreak in a high-turnover short-term rehabilitation unit, a low vaccination rate and medically complex resident population were noted alongside severe outcomes. VE of 2-dose primary-series mRNA vaccine against symptomatic infection was the highest in nonimmunocompromised residents. Health departments can use vaccine coverage data to prioritize facilities for assistance in preventing outbreaks.