Search

Coal-fired power plays a critical role in China's compliance with the Paris Agreement. This research quantifies China's stranded coal assets under different coal capacity expansion scenarios with an integrated approach and high-precision coal-fired power database. From a top-down perspective, firstly, the pathway of China's coal-fired power capacity consistent with the global 2°C scenario is outlined and then those stranded coal-fired power plants are identified with a bottom-up perspective. Stranded value is estimated based upon a cash flow algorithm. Results show that if coal capacity stabilizes during 2020–2030, China will only incur a sizeable yet manageable stranded asset loss (USD 55 billion, 2020–2045). However, a continued increase of coal-fired capacity, of another 200∼400 GW, would significantly enlarge the loss by 2.7∼7.2 times. Further, once commissioned coal-fired power would form a resource lock-in effect. Thus, it will miss a short-term opportunity to develop new energy sources and induce a long-term need to invest in coal-fired power negative emission technology. Therefore, halting the construction of new coal-fired plants is a low-cost and no-regret option for China. Key policy insights Even with the largest coal-fired power capacity in the world, China still has the chance to decommission the coal-fired power units gradually at a relatively low cost. Continuing to build new coal-fired power units in China will increase the risk of stranded assets, especially for North China Grid and Northwest China Grid. Taking immediate action to stop building new coal-fired power units would be the low-cost and no-regret option for China. The local financial sector needs to work with the energy sector to gradually withdraw from the coal sector and support clean and renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), remains a formidable threat in mortality and morbidity worldwide. Ethambutol (EMB) is one of the first-line drugs regimens for TB treatment. Arabinosyl transferases are established targets of EMB, which is involved in the biosynthesis of arabinogalactan (AG) and lipoarabinomannan (LAM). Mutations among embCAB operon are responsible for around 70% clinical EMB resistant M. tuberculosis. In this review, we summarised other potential factors associated with EMB resistance via analysing whole genome, proteome and transcriptome of M. tuberculosis exposed to EMB. This will help to design better diagnosis of EMB resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking NREL 5 MW large offshore wind turbine as a research object, a theoretical model considering geometrical nonlinearity is established, and the dynamic response analysis is carried out. Besides, the blade scaled model is processed and used in the wind tunnel test. The numerical results show that the response values of displacement and Mises stress for the blade, as well as the increment of displacement and stress for each blade section, rise nonlinearly with the equal amplitude of incoming wind speed, regardless of the single-blade model or the whole machine model. The inter-structure coupling effect is more obvious with the increase in income wind speed. The difference of maximum blade displacement between two models first decreases and then increases along the wing span direction. Furthermore, the difference of Mises stress increases gradually with the same increment in incoming wind speed and decreases nonlinearly from the middle to both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-replicative DNA methylation is essential for diverse biological processes in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), the causative agent of tuberculosis, remains one of the most formidable threats worldwide. Although DNA methylation of M. tuberculosis has been documented, little information is available for clinical drug-resistant M. tuberculosis. Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing was used to profile the core methylome of three clinical isolates, namely multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) strains. 3812, 6808 and 6041 DNA methylated sites were identified in MDR-MTB, XDR-MTB and XXDR-MTB genome, respectively. There are two types of methylated motifs, namely N6-methyladenine (m6A) and N4-methylcytosine (m4C). A novel widespread 6 mA methylation motif 5′-CACGCAG-3′ was found in XDR-MTB and XXDR-MTB. The methylated genes are involved in multiple cellular processes, especially metabolic enzymes engaged in glucose metabolism, fatty acid and TCA cycle. Many methylated genes are involved in mycobacterial virulence, antibiotic resistance and tolerance. This provided a comprehensive list of methylated genes in drug-resistant clinical isolates and the basis for further functional elucidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dinuclear ruthenium complexes [Ru2(bpy)4BL](ClO4)2 (Ru-1), where bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine and BL = 2,2′-((1E,1′E)-((E)-diazene-1,2-diyl-bis(2,1-phenylene))-bis(azanylylidene))bis(methanylylidene))diphenol (a bidentate bridging ligand), and mononuclear ruthenium complexes [Ru(bpy)2L](ClO4) (Ru-2), where L = (E)-2-((phenylimino)methyl)phenol, were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Their photophysical and electrochemical properties were also studied. The cytotoxicity of the two complexes in vitro was evaluated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The results indicated that Ru-1 and Ru-2 exhibited significant dose-dependent cytotoxicity to human breast cancer (MCF-7), gastric cancer (SGC-7901), cervical cancer (Hela), and lung cancer (A549) tumor cell lines. Ru-1 showed excellent antitumor effects in a cellular study (IC50 values of 3.61 μM for MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in vitro). However, Ru-2 exhibited the highest cytotoxicity to Hela cells; the IC50 value is 3.71 μM. The results reveal that Ru-1 and Ru-2 have obvious selectivity and might be a potential anticancer agent that could improve the efficacy of common anticancer therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control charts are widely used in industries to monitor a process for quality improvement. Evaluation of the average run length (ARL) or average time to signal (ATS) plays an important role in the design of control charts and performance comparison. In this paper, we review several basic and popular procedures, including the Markov chain and integral equation methods for computing ARL, ATS and associated run length distributions for cumulative sum charts, exponentially weighted moving average charts and combined control charts, respectively. Some important references and key formulations are provided for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a software tool, Simprosys, and its newly added burner unit operation model for process modeling and simulation of drying. Combustion generation using the burner unit operation is described briefly. Humid gas properties of combustion are compared and found to be different from those of air. The effects of pressure on both air and combustion humid gas properties are investigated. It is found that both combustion and air could be significantly different in their moisture carrying capability when the operating pressure is different from standard atmospheric pressure, especially for some vacuum drying cases where the operating pressure is well below atmospheric pressure. A model combustion drying flowsheet is simulated with Simprosys 3.0 and simulation results are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study of Simprosys applied to the energy efficiency evaluation of an exisisting fiberboard drying production line. An energy examination of the dryer and the drying system under current operating conditions was performed using Simprosys 2.1 (Simprotek, Cupertino, CA). Detailed parametric studies of the drying system were carried out. Possible improvements for the enegry efficiency of the dryer itself and the drying system are proposed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two trinuclear Ni(II) complexes Ni3(L1)2(py)2(DMF)(H2O) (1) and Ni3(L2)2(py)2(DMF)2 (2) with two new trianionic pentadentate ligands N-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)-salicylhydrazide (H3L1) and N-(phenylacetyl)-5-nitrosalicylhydrazide (H3L2) have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography. Nickel ions in the two complexes have square-planar/octahedral/square-planar coordination. Central metal ion and two terminal metal ions in the two complexes are combined by two bridging deprotonated ligands, forming a trinuclear structural unit with an M-N-N-M-N-N-M core. Studies on the trinuclear Ni(II) complexes show that the β-branched N-acylsalicylhydrazide ligands with sterically flexible Cα methylene groups yield linear trinuclear Ni(II) complexes, while α-branched N-acylsalicylhydrazide ligands tend to form bent trinuclear Ni(II) complexes. Antibacterial screening data in a previous study indicates that bent trinuclear Ni(II) compound 1 is more active than linear compound 2 and less active than a tetranuclear nickel compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available commercial software to simulate flowsheets incorporating drying is reviewed briefly. Such software can be very cost effective in the design, analysis, trouble-shooting, as well as control and optimization of drying systems. A new comprehensive drying software suite is proposed and analyzed. Key factors to the success of drying software products are discussed. Motivation, principles, and applications of the new drying software package, Simprosys, which represents a major step toward development of a comprehensive drying software suite, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the published research and development work on refractory drying. Current practice and potential problems are analyzed. Some selected important research results are presented. It is shown that significantly improved drying procedures can be achieved through computer simulation of the drying process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A macrocyclic iron(III) 18-azametallacrown-6 compound, [Fe6(5-Brashz)6(H2O)6] · 20H2O(5-Brashz = N-acetyl-(5-bromosalicylhydrazide)), where the pentadentate ligands bridge the metal ions, was synthesized and characterized. Due to the meridional coordination of the ligand to the metal ion, the ligand is not only bridging the ring metal ions using a hydrazide N-N group, but also enforcing the stereochemistry of the metal ions as a propeller shape with alternating Λ/Δ configuration. The disc-shaped hexanuclear cluster is about 14.5 Å in diameter, 16.8 Å in thickness and has a vacant cavity in the center of the cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractTuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which poses a significant threat to human health . Lipoproteins are predominantly found in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall during infection of the invading host. The cell wall interacts closely with the host cell in direct contact .The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome encodes at least 99 lipoproteins with diverse functions, including ABC transport, cell wall metabolism, adhesion, cell invasion, and signal transduction, among others .Different lipoproteins play important roles in bacterial survival, infection of host cells, vaccine development and gene regulation for drug targeting . Although only a subset of these lipoproteins has been functionally investigated, most of them require further study . This review summarizes the progress of research related to the synthesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lipoproteins and their involvement in the functions of material transport, immune response, virulence mechanism, vaccine development, signaling, enzyme and drug regulation . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]