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Biomass-based polymers and their property regulation using functional materials have attracted much interest. In this work, ricinoleic acid-derived cyclic carbonate was prepared and applied to the synthesis of nonisocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) with aliphatic diamine, in which octa(aminopropyl) polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (OAP-POSS) was incorporated as polyamine to partially or totally substitutes for the diamine to introduce POSS units into the polymer thus regulating the properties of the resultant material. In the curing process, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to track the reaction and curing at 50[degrees]C for 12 h was found to be sufficient for the polymerization. A series of POSS modified NIPUs were obtained by altering the molar fraction of OAP-POSS in total amine components and the material with the highest thermal stability, shore hardness and water resistance was accessed with 100% substitution of OAP-POSS for diamine. KEYWORDS biomass utilization, nonisocyanate polyurethanes, POSS modification, ricinoleic acid, 1 | INTRODUCTION The excessive consumption of fossil fuels has led to massive carbon dioxide emissions, resulting in global warming and consequent detrimental environmental impacts. [1] Moreover, fossil resources are [...]

A Cu/Co tandem catalysis protocol was developed to conduct the hydroformylation of olefins using CO2/H2 and PMHS (polymethylhydrosiloxane) as a readily available and environmentally friendly hydride source. This methodology was performed via a two‐step approach consisting of the copper‐catalyzed reduction of CO2 by hydrosilane and subsequent cobalt‐promoted hydroformylation with H2 and the in situ formed CO. The optimized triphos oxide ligand, which presumably facilitates the migratory insertion of CO gives moderate to excellent yields for both terminal and internal alkenes. This earth‐abundant metal catalysis provides a reliable and efficient way to afford useful aldehydes in industry using silicon by‐product PMHS as hydrogen source and renewable CO2 as carbonyl source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing earth‐abundant metal complexes as efficient molecular photocatalysts for visible light‐driven CO2 reduction is a key challenge in artificial photosynthesis. Here, we demonstrated the first example of a mononuclear iron pyridine‐thiolate complex that functions both as a photosensitizer and catalyst for CO2 reduction. This single‐component bifunctional molecular photocatalyst efficiently reduced CO2 to formate and CO with a total turnover number (TON) of 46 and turnover frequency (TOF) of 11.5 h−1 in 4 h under visible light irradiation. Notably, the quantum yield was determined to be 8.4 % for the generation of formate and CO at 400 nm. Quenching experiments indicate that high photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the rapid intramolecular quenching protocol. The mechanism investigation by DFT calculation and electrochemical studies revealed that the protonation of Febpy(pyS)2 is indispensable step for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of KF/Mg‐Fe oxides were fabricated via the solid‐state reaction between KF and Mg‐Fe oxides. Especially, when 20 wt % KF was supported on the Mg‐Fe bi‐metal oxides and calcined at 400–600 °C, the solid material with more basic sites than the support itself was obtained. When applied as catalyst to dimethyl carbonate (DMC) synthesis through transesterification of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methanol, this material can afforded up to 88 % yield and 97 % selectivity toward DMC in 2 h under reflux conditions with the molar ratio of methanol to ethylene carbonate set at 8. It is worth noting that the catalyst was easily separated and reused, retaining at least 89 % catalytic activity during the first four recycles. Although an attenuated activity was still observed due to the inevitable filtration loss and dissolution, this solid base can still provide clues to the development recyclable catalyst in green synthesis of DMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Fragrant rice is increasingly popular with the public owing to its fresh aroma, and 2‐acetyl‐1‐pyrroline (2‐AP) is the main characteristic component of the aroma in fragrant rice. Rice–fish co‐culture is an environmentally friendly practice in sustainable agriculture. However, the effect of rice–fish co‐culture on 2‐AP in grains has received little study. A conventional fragrant rice (Meixiangzhan 2) was used, and a related field experiment during three rice growing seasons was conducted to investigate the effects of rice–fish co‐culture on 2‐AP, as well as the rice quality, yield, plant nutrients, and precursors and enzyme activities of 2‐AP biosynthesis in leaves. This study involved three fish stocking density treatments (i.e. 9000 (D1), 15 000 (D2), and 21 000 (D3) fish fries per hectare) and rice monocropping. RESULTS: Rice–fish co‐culture increased the 2‐AP content in grains by 2.5–49.4% over that of the monocropping, with significant increases in the early and late rice seasons of 2020. Rice–fish co‐culture treatments significantly promoted seed‐setting rates by 3.39–7.65%, and improved leaf nutrients and rice quality. Notably, the D2 treatment significantly increased leaf total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total potassium (TK) contents and the head rice rate at maturity stage, while significantly decreased chalkiness degree. There was no significant difference in rice yield. CONCLUSION: Rice–fish co‐culture had positive effects on 2‐AP synthesis, rice quality, seed‐setting rates, and plant nutrient contents. The better stocking density of field fish for rice–fish co‐culture in this study was 15 000 fish ha−1. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing CO2 and subsequently converting into valuable chemicals has attracted extensive attention. Herein, a series of biomass‐based N‐rich porous carbon materials with high specific surface area and pore volume were prepared using biomass waste soybean dregs as precursors. The nitrogen content was up to 4 % with different forms in the carbon skeleton such as pyridine‐N, pyrrole‐N. The synergistic effect of ultra‐micropore (pore size <0.7 nm) and N‐containing groups endowed the materials with a high CO2 adsorption capacity, reaching 6.3 and 3.6 mmol g−1 at 0 and 25 °C under atmospheric pressure, respectively. In addition, the sufficient interaction between N‐containing groups and CO2 was demonstrated by solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the captured CO2 was possibly activated in the form of carbamate, which is conducive to subsequent conversion. Therefore, the supported catalyst with the as‐synthetic porous carbon material as the carrier and ZnII as catalytic sites was prepared and successfully applied for carboxylative cyclization of propargylic amine with CO2 to afford the 3‐benzyl‐5‐methyleneoxazolidin‐2‐one. The results showed that CO2 capture and in‐situ conversion work effectively to produce highly value‐added chemicals. In this process, the captured CO2 could be activated and fixed into chemicals in mild conditions. More importantly, the energy consumption in CO2 desorption and adsorbent regeneration could be avoided. The valorization of both solid waste and CO2 to valuable chemicals provides an elegant strategy of killing three birds with one stone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the novel solid base Li/NaY was prepared via the solid state reaction between NaY zeolite and Li2CO3 at high temperature. When applied to the dimethyl carbonate (DMC) preparation through transesterification of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methanol, up to 89% yield of DMC with 99% selectivity can be accessed. The characterization results reveal the as‐synthesized Li/NaY possesses higher basicity than NaY. Furthermore, the Lewis acidity of the Li/NaY material is also enhanced due to the incorporation of lithium. Therefore, the Li/NaY can act as a dual functional catalyst in the transesterification reaction, thus leading to high efficiency. Notably, this catalyst can be easily recovered and reused for at least six times without obvious activity loss. This work provides a green synthetic route to DMC production and also sheds light on the development of solid basic catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A palladium-catalyzed four-component carboxylative cyclization comprising propargylic amines, aryl iodides, CO2 and CO was developed. By selecting Et3N and 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) as the base, respectively, both terminal and internal propargylic amines proceeded well facilitated by Pd(PPh3)2Cl2, affording the functionalized 2-oxazolones in moderate yields. This protocol enlarges the product diversity based on CO2 conversion and simultaneously provides a cooperative transformation route for both CO2 and CO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thin spray-on liner is an inorganic polymer product that has been widely used to support mine perimeter rock roadways, but it is mainly used in metallic hard rock roadways with high rock strength and is less used in roadways affected by roadway corrosion and weathering in shallowly buried coal seams. Therefore, this study studies the thin spray-on liner support technology under such geological conditions. First, the causes of anchor support failure in this condition are analyzed, and it is concluded that alkaline ionized water corrodes the anchor rods, and chloride ions in the water play a role in accelerating the degree of anchor rod corrosion. Next, microscopic testing was used to determine the content of weathering and swelling minerals contained in the roof rock and the development of tectonic fissures. Third, the loosening circle of the surrounding rock is theoretically calculated and used as a basis to design the anchor mesh rope support parameters for the roadway. Finally, the construction process of a thin spray-on liner anticorrosion and antiweathering support technology is introduced. This technology improves the anchor force environment of anchor rods while incorporating anchor rods (ropes)—rock—metal mesh into the support system to play a coupling support role. On-site monitoring is performed to derive the optimum thickness of the spraying layer in different environments. At the same time, the deformation of the roadway surrounding rock and the anchor force can be improved to meet the requirements of anticorrosion and antiweathering and tighten the roadway surrounding rock. Compared with concrete support technology, the economic and environmental benefits of this support technology are apparent, and it helps to promote the application in shallowly buried coal seam mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic synthesis has emerged as an efficient route to transform CO2 into functionalized organic carbamates by photocatalysis. Herein, a catalyst-free carbamoyloxylation of arylacetones with CO2 and amines under visible light was developed for the synthesis of O-β-oxoalkyl carbamates in yields up to 93%. This protocol proceeded smoothly with the assistance of inexpensive carbon tetrabromide at room temperature under atmospheric CO2 pressure, leading to simultaneous construction of C–O and C–N bonds. Mechanism studies suggested the photoinduced hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) pathway followed by radical addition or single electron transfer (SET). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to valuable chemicals, especially fuels, is considered as a promising strategy to mitigate CO2 accumulation and tackle the energy crisis, among which photocatalysis is vital to achieve efficient and selective reduction of CO2. In this work, phosphorus-doped hollow polygonal g-C3N4 rods were prepared through phosphoric acid assisted self-assembly under hydrothermal conditions and subsequent thermal polymerization using phosphoric acid as the phosphorus source and melamine as the nitrogen-rich precursor. The resulting phosphorus-doped hollow polygonal g-C3N4 rods feature increased specific surface area, visible light absorption and photogenerated carrier separation and transfer efficiency according to the structure and photoelectric properties characterization. Coupled with an earth abundant metal-based complex, i.e. [Co(bpy)3]Cl2, as a co-catalyst, the phosphorus-doped hollow polygonal g-C3N4 rods deliver a CO evolution rate of up to 447.5 μmol g−1 h−1 with a selectivity of ca. 96%, being much higher compared to the pristine g-C3N4 (67.01 μmol g−1 h−1 with a selectivity of ca. 94%) resulting from the improved light harvesting and charge transfer to the co-catalyst. Remarkably, the phosphorus-doped hollow polygonal g-C3N4 rods can be reused 6 times while retaining constant catalytic activity in the photoreduction reaction. This work presents new insights into photocatalytic CO2 reduction by developing non-metal doping and hollow structural designs for semiconductor photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the degradation state of hydraulic pumps is of great significance to the safe and stable operation of equipment. As an important step, feature extraction has always been challenging. The non-stationary and nonlinear characteristics of vibration signals are likely to weaken the performance of traditional features. The two-dimensional image representation of vibration signals can provide more information for feature extraction, but it is challenging to obtain sufficient information based on small-size images. To solve these problems, a method for feature extraction based on modified hierarchical decomposition (MHD) and image processing is proposed in this paper. First, a set of signals decomposed by MHD are converted into gray-scale images. Second, features from accelerated segment test (FAST) algorithm are applied to detecting the feature points of the gray-scale image. Third, the real part of Gabor filter bank is used to convolve the images, and the responses of feature points are used to calculate histograms that are regarded as feature vectors. The method for feature extraction fully acquires the multi-layered texture information of small-size images and removes the redundant information. Furthermore, support vector machine (SVM) and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) are introduced to conduct feature selection and state identification. NSGA-II and SVM can conduct the joint optimization of these two goals. The details of the proposed method are validated using experimental data, and the results show that the highest recognition rate of our proposed method can reach 100%. The results of the comparison among the proposed method, local binary pattern (LBP), and one-dimensional ternary patterns (1D-TPs) certify the superiorities of the proposed method. It obtains the highest classification accuracy (99.7%–98%) and the lowest feature set dimension (13–10). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bio‐derived lubricants, especially those derived from vegetable oils, are considered to be promising alternatives to mineral oil‐based lubricants due to the features of sustainability and environmental friendliness. In this work, the polyol ricinoleates were prepared by esterification of ricinoleic acid with trimethylolpropane (TMP), neopentyl glycol (NPG) and pentaerythritol (PE) respectively using Lewis acidic stannous oxide as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst, affording the polyol ricinoleates up to 99.7% yield. Remarkably, the solid catalyst was readily recovered and reused at least for five cycles without significant loss of activity. The resulting polyol ricinoleates products were structurally characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), 1H NMR, 13C NMR, electrospray ionization mass spectra (ESI‐MS); and were stable below 300°C through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Furthermore, the physicochemical and lubricating properties of as‐synthesized polyol esters were also evaluated including viscosity at 40 and 100°C, viscosity index (VI), pour point and flash point, thermal stability and wear scar diameter. To our delight, the performance indicators of the target products were comparable or better than the commercial lubricants, showing their potential as lubricant base oil. This work represents an alternative access to useful lubricant products via effective and selective conversion of non‐edible vegetable oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 valorization into valuable chemicals has attracted much attention, among which carboxylative cyclization represents an appealing transformation strategy to synthesize heterocyclic compounds. Conventionally, the carboxylative cyclization comprises CO2 capture and subsequent nucleophilic attack of the resulting carboxylic anion to an unsaturated bond, by which the monofunctionalization of the unsaturated bond is realized and the heterocyclic compounds, such as 5-/6-membered cyclolactone, cyclocarbonate, and oxazolidinone, are accordingly generated. Nowadays, the CO2-participated multicomponent carboxylative cyclizations have evoked intense interest due to their ability to perform the bifunctionalization of the unsaturated bond in the ring-closing step, thus assembling complex molecules. Up to now, by activating the unsaturated bonds with functionalized reagents and designing cascade reactions of organometallic compounds, substituents including iodine, trifluoromethyl, perfluoroalkyl, alkyl, cyanoalkyl, allyl, aryl, phenoxy, allenyl, selenyl, amino, and phosphonyl groups have been incorporated into the cyclocarbonate or oxazolidinone compounds successfully through the multicomponent carboxylative cyclizations. Given the tremendous utility of this synthetic strategy in heterocyclic compound synthesis, this review summarizes the progress of multicomponent carboxylative cyclizations to spur the further development of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limb spasms are phenomena of hyperreflexia that occur after spinal cord injury. Currently, the clinical treatment is less than ideal. Our goal is to develop a combination therapy based on individualized medicine to reduce spasticity after spinal cord injury. In this study, rats received a severe contusive injury at the T9 segment of the spinal cord, followed by gene therapy with adenoassociated virus encoding human neurotrophic factor 3 (AAV-NT3) and a 2-week exercise program starting at 4 weeks after injury. We quantified the frequency of spasms during a swimming test at 4 and 6 weeks after injury and confirmed the results of the swimming test by measuring the H-reflex of the plantar muscle. We obtained weekly hind limb exercise scores to assess the effect of the interventions in hind limb motor function improvement. Then, we used immunofluorescence to observe the immunoreactivity of spinal motor neurons, synaptophysin, cholinergic interneurons, and GABAergic interneurons. We also measured the expression of KCC2 in the spinal cord by western blot. We found that AAV-NT3 gene therapy, exercise, and combination therapy all attenuated the frequency of spasms in the swimming test conducted at 6 weeks after spinal cord injury and increased rate-dependent depression of H-reflex. Combination therapy was significantly superior to AAV-NT3 alone in protecting motor neurons. Recovery of KCC2 expression was significantly greater in rats treated with combination therapy than in the exercise group. Combination therapy was also significantly superior to individual therapies in remodeling spinal cord neurons. Our study shows that the combination of AAV-NT3 gene therapy and exercise can alleviate muscle spasm after spinal cord injury by altering the excitability of spinal interneurons and motor neurons. However, combination therapy did not show a significant additive effect, which needs to be improved by adjusting the combined strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cupric subcarbonate (Cu2(OH)2CO3) was found to be effective for the reductive functionalization of CO2 to produce formamides and methylamines with phenylsilane as reductant. Interestingly, N-formylation and N-methylation were switched on/off by subtly choosing the ligand: DPPB (1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane) promoted N-methylation whereas Ph2CyP (diphenylcyclohexylphosphine) favored for N-formylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The development of efficient catalysts for the alkylation of amines with carboxylic acids is attracting much attention. Herein, we would like to report an earth‐abundant iron‐catalyzed protocol for the N‐alkylation of anilines using carboxylic acid as alkyl source and phenylsilane as reducing agent. With Fe2(CO)9 as a catalyst, a broad range of primary and secondary anilines are successfully converted to the corresponding tertiary anilines. Furthermore, this N‐alkylation mainly goes through the amide pathway; while the aldehyde pathway can not be ruled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the last few years, photochemical and electrochemical CO2 transformations have attracted increasing attention in response to topical interest in renewable energy and green chemistry. The present minireview offers an overview about the current approaches for the photochemical and electrochemical carbon dioxide fixation with organic compounds. Valuable products, including carboxylic acids and heterocyclic compounds, are accessible through carboxylation and carboxylative cyclization, respectively. In photochemical and electrochemical processes, photo‐ or electro‐induced radical ions or other high‐energy organic compounds are considered as key intermediates to react with CO2. Besides, activation of CO2 to produce radical anion has also been reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We investigated risk factors for decreased lung function among Chinese island residents (≥30 years) to determine the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MS) and decreased lung function. Methods From October 17, 2011 to November 1, 2011, 2607 residents aged ≥30 years who lived on the Huangqi Peninsula of Fujian were enlisted by random cluster sampling. They completed a questionnaire designed according to the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) questionnaire, and underwent physical examination, blood test, and lung function evaluation. We constructed spirometric prediction equations for forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), determined the lower limits of normal for FVC, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC, and examined the relationship between lung function and MS. Results Prediction equations for normal island residents were as follows: FVC (L) = −0.023 × age (years) + 0.042 × height (cm) + 0.641 × weight (kg) - 3.607 (males);, FVC (L) = −0.017 × age (years) + 0.030 × height (cm) + 0.009 × weight (kg) - 1.741 (females);, FEV1 (L) = −0.023 × age (years) + 0.040 × height (cm) + 0.010 × weight (kg) - 2.999 (males);, FEV1 (L) = −0.017 × age (years) + 0.026 × height (cm) + 0.007 × weight (kg) −1.135 (females)., The odds ratio for MS for increased risk of decreased FVC was 4.623 (95%CI =3.626-5.894, P<0.001), and for increased risk of decreased FEV1 was 3.043 (95%CI =2.447-3.785, P<0.001). Conclusions MS is a risk factor for decreased lung function in island residents ≥30 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the problem that the actual degradation status of rolling bearing has a poor distinguishing characteristic and strong fuzziness, a rolling bearing degradation state identification method based on multidomain feature fusion and dimension reduction of manifold learning combined with GG clustering is proposed. Firstly, the rolling bearing all-life data is preprocessed by local characteristic-scale decomposition (LCD) and six typical features including relative energy spectrum entropy (LREE), relative singular spectrum entropy (LRSE), two-element multiscale entropy (TMSE), standard deviation (STD), RMS, and root-square amplitude (XR) are extracted and compose the original multidomain feature set. And then, locally preserving projection (LPP) is utilized to reduce dimension of original fusion feature set and genetic algorithm is applied to optimize the process of feature fusion. Finally, fuzzy recognition of rolling bearing degradation state is carried out by GG clustering and the principle of maximum membership degree and excellent performance of the proposed method is validated by comparing the recognition accuracy of LPP and GA-LPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation state identification is a key step of the condition based maintenance of hydraulic pump. In this paper, spatial information entropy (SIE) as a novel degradation feature of pump is proposed based on the study of permutation entropy (PE) algorithm. The fundamental principle of SIE is introduced and contrasted with PE. Different parameters used in the calculation of SIE are discussed and meaningful conclusion is gained. The results of simulation analysis not only checked the rationality of SIE but also demonstrated the availability and superiority of adopting SIE as the degradation feature. Based on simulation analysis, SIE and PE are united and used as degradation feature vector of pump. FCM algorithm is employed to diagnose the degradation state of pump. The analysis results of practical signal testified the rationality and availability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domain of rolling bearing condition monitor and fault prognosis, to solve the key problem of rolling bearing degenerate feature extraction, a new approach based on generalized mathematical morphological particle is proposed in the paper, the new approach, which is founded on the mathematical morphological particle analysis, introduces corrosion and dilation operators in morphological calculation and takes the calculated generalized mathematical morphological particle as feature indicator, therefore, the performance degenerate degree could be reflected in quantity. The effectiveness of this approach is test and verified with simulation and actual signal. On this basis, in order to describe the whole tendency and random fluctuating feature for rolling bearings, grey Markov model is applied in the remaining service life prediction for rolling bearing, A method of remaining service life prediction based on generalized mathematical morphological particle and grey Markov model is proposed thereby. Rolling bearing fatigued life testing was proceeded with Hangzhou Bearing Test & Research Center, the approach is proved effective with the collecting bearing inner race whole life data in fatigued life testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the position regulation problem of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) subject to parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. A novel fractional second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (F2NTSMC) is proposed and the finite time stability of the closed-loop system is ensured. A sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO) is developed to estimate and make feedforward compensation for the lumped disturbances of the PMSM system. Moreover, the finite-time convergence of estimation errors can be guaranteed. The control scheme combining F2NTSMC and SMDO can not only improve performance of the closed-loop system and attenuate disturbances, but also reduce chattering effectively. Simulation results show that the proposed control method can obtain satisfactory position tracking performance and strong robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We investigated the prevalence of and risk factors for small airway obstruction (SAO) among Chinese island residents to establish means to prevent and treat SAO. Methods: From October 17, 2011 to November 1, 2011, a total of 2,873 residents aged >20 years who lived on the Huangqi Peninsula of Fujian were recruited by random cluster sampling. They were asked to complete a Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) questionnaire and underwent physical examinations and lung function evaluations. SAO was defined as a forced expiratory flow at 50% of vital capacity, Vmax50%, of less than 70% of predicted. Risk factors for SAO were assessed from among demographic and anthropometric variables, blood chemistry results, and questionnaire response items. Results: A total of 216 (7.52%) Chinese island residents were identified as having SAO (95 males; 121 females). Their survey and test results were compared with 432 age and sex-matched healthy controls (192 males; 240 females) for SAO risk factors. Among numerous factors investigated, only diabetes mellitus (p = 0.039), smoking index (SI, p<0.001 for SI>600), second hand smoke (p = 0.002), and lack of regular exercise (p<0.001) were significant risk factors for SAO. Conclusions: The risk factors for SAO among Chinese island residents appeared to be similar to those among people who live in high-density urban environments and impoverished rural areas. Public health policies and medical practices directed toward improving respiratory health for island residents should be comparable to those used for urban and rural dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, rice blast (Pyricularia oryzae) causes more rice crop loss than other diseases. Acid rain has reduced crop yields globally for nearly a century. However, the effects of acid rain on rice-Pyricularia oryzae systems are still far from fully understood. In this study, we conducted a lab cultivation experiment of P. oryzae under a series of acidity conditions as well as a glasshouse cultivation experiment of rice that was inoculated with P. oryzae either before (P. + SAR) or after (SAR + P.) simulated acid rain (SAR) at pH 5.0, 4.0, 3.0 and 2.0. Our results showed that the growth and pathogenicity of P. oryzae was significantly inhibited with decreasing pH treatments in vitro culture. The SAR + P. treatment with a pH of 4.0 was associated with the highest inhibition of P. oryzae expansion. However, regardless of the inoculation time, higher-acidity rain treatments showed a decreased inhibition of P. oryzae via disease-resistance related enzymes and metabolites in rice leaves, thus increasing disease index. The combined effects of high acidity and fungal inoculation were more serious than that of either alone. This study provides novel insights into the effects of acid rain on the plant–pathogen interaction and may also serve as a guide for evaluating disease control and crop health in the context of acid rain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]