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C31H37NO7, monoclinic, P21 (no. 4), a = 8.1269(1) Å, b = 11.0527(1) Å, c = 16.3586(2) Å, β = 97.973(1)°, V = 1455.19(3) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt (F) = 0.0467, wRref (F 2) = 0.1308, T = 293(2) K.

In response to the global climate crisis, some countries and regions have established green trade “carbon barriers” that leverage their advantages in carbon emissions accounting and certification to curtail exports of Chinese products. Facing these emerging challenges, China needs to refine its carbon accounting system to contribute to an equitable and cooperative global climate governance and trade system. This study aims to improve China’s carbon accounting system. It summarizes the essence and construction progress of the carbon accounting system, introduces the accounting and reporting requirements of international green trade mechanisms, and employs comparative analysis to examine the differences between China’s carbon market, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the “Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries” in terms of accounting boundaries, methodologies, and data support and quality assurance systems. The findings indicate that while China’s carbon market aligns with international green trade mechanisms in terms of accounting methodologies, it lags significantly in its carbon footprint system as well as data support and quality assurance systems. These gaps mean that Chinese export-oriented enterprises struggle to overcome these carbon barriers with the current accounting system, potentially hindering the development of emerging industries. The study suggests that China should adhere to its fundamental stance of opposing unfair green trade barriers and take specific measures to improve the carbon accounting system: (1) enhancing the product-level carbon accounting system, (2) establishing a credible platform for emission factor data, (3) bolstering research support from academic institutions, (4) reinforcing data security management, and (5) improving the carbon accounting and reporting capabilities of affected enterprises. more...

ObjectiveTo provide scientific support for the compilation of high-quality anti-nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) medical textbooks in China by retrieving books in the field of biological weapons defense in China, summarizing the publication time and distribution of publishing institutions, and categorizing content and key points of related books.MethodsRelevant subject terms in the field of biological weapons defense were searched through the official website of China National Digital Library and other websites, up until December 31, 2023, and were limited to books. Topic analysis was conducted on the introductions and contents of the books using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model. The number of topics was determined based on perplexity, and topics were identified according to the intertopic distance map, followed by a qualitative description of the core content of each topic.ResultsA total of 104 books were included in this study, among which four were identified as higher educational textbooks. The volume of publications increased during the periods 2002‒2004 and 2020‒2023. Research institutions accounted for the highest percentage of publishers (37.78%), and 56.67% of the publishers were military institutions. The study identified six topics: "distribution, defense, and response to biological weapons", "category, diagnosis, and treatment of biological warfare agents", "response to biological public health emergencies", "status of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons internationally", "biosafety risk management and prevention and control", and "technologies and equipment related to biological hazard identification".ConclusionThere are few books in the field of biological weapons defense in China and the content is relatively outdated. In the future, the preparation of teaching materials should be aimed at practical emergency handling techniques for biological weapons, enhance the emphasis on biological weapons detection and biological warfare early warning, improve the fundamental theories at different training levels, and timely update the current research status in the field. more...

The remarkable similarity between non-human primates (NHPs) and humans establishes them as essential models for understanding human biology and diseases, as well as for developing novel therapeutic strategies, thereby providing more comprehensive reference data for clinical treatment. Pluripotent stem cells such as embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells provide unprecedented opportunities for cell therapies against intractable diseases and injuries. As continue to harness the potential of these biotechnological therapies, NHPs are increasingly being employed in preclinical trials, serving as a pivotal tool to evaluate the safety and efficacy of these interventions. Here, we review the recent advancements in the fundamental research of stem cells and the progress made in studies involving NHPs. more...

Abstract Background Public health strategies to improve patient adherence to antibiotics rely mostly on raising awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and improving knowledge about antibiotics. We aimed to evaluate how adherence to antibiotics relates to knowledge and the threat perceptions proposed by the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). Method A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in September-December 2020 with 1002 participants aged 21-70 years in Singapore. Two items, which were reverse coded, evaluated adherence to antibiotics: ‘how often do you obtain antibiotics that were left over from the previous prescription’ and ‘how often did you treat yourself with antibiotics in the past year’. Questions about the PMT-related constructs, and knowledge regarding antibiotics and AMR knowledge were also included. Hierarchical regression models were performed at a 5% significance level. Results Adherence to antibiotics was associated with knowledge level (β = 0.073, p more...

Electric Centrifugal Chillers (ECC) are mostly incorporated into District Cooling (DC) systems for charging the Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank or/and to supply Chilled Water (CW) directly to the DC network for Air Conditioning (AC). ECC accounts for the highest percentage of the total electrical energy consumption, making it the most energy-intensive system in the DC setup. The high positive correlation between energy consumption and cost, and its influence on the decision-making process, necessitate the requirement to conduct an economic performance evaluation of the ECC plants. To achieve this objective, a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis is performed to quantify the economic implication resulting from the ECC system's acquisition, operation, and maintenance. In this analysis, four (4) ECC systems installed in a large DC plant in Malaysia are considered the case study. The result obtained from the analysis of the study year revealed that April and June accounted for the maximum and minimum cost implication per outcome, respectively. It is also observed from the results that the climatic temperature conditions had a significant influence on the monthly cooling demand, energy consumed, and cost incurred. The operational phase of the system's life cycle accounted for the highest cost implication from the overall LCC result. A significant reduction in the operating cost is recorded as the indirect energy source used for driving the chiller plant is switched from the electricity supplied from the National Electricity Grid (NEG) and supplied from the Natural Gas Plant (NGP). The LCC per refrigeration ton of the ECC system is estimated to be MYR 1.44/RTh. The impact of system degradation (i.e. decrease in Coefficient of Performance (COP) value) over time on the overall cost per output refrigeration was also investigated. The study also revealed that operating an actual ECC system on electricity from NGP led to a 31% cost savings compared to an ideal system running on electricity from NEG. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted at the end of the study to determine the influence of the input variable on the output result. more...

The natural functional bacteria DDMZ1, which was domesticated and screened from the sludge samples of hydrolysis acidification reactor, was used as the immobilized composite carrier, and the immobilized DDMZ1 spheres were formed by embedding and crosslinking method. Through experiments, the decolorization efficiency of free DDMZ1 bacterial solution and immobilized DDMZ1 pellets on RB5 azo dyes was compared and analyzed. The community structure of free DDMZ1 bacterial solution and immobilized DDMZ1 pellets recycled for 20 and 30 batches were analyzed respectively to explore the differences of their community structure composition. The results show that the decolorization efficiency and rate of immobilized DDMZ1 pellets for RB5 azo dyes were better than that of free DDMZ1 bacterial solution, and there were significant differences in microbial community structure between them. The immobilization technology is conducive to the stability of community structure. The community structure composition of immobilized DDMZ1 pellets recycled for 20 and 30 times is highly similar. Escherichia-Shigella and Dysgonomonas are enriched in the two immobilized DDMZ1 pellets at the subordinate classification level. It is speculated that these two genera are the main reasons for the stability and high decolorization efficiency of immobilized DDMZ1 beads for RB5 azo dyes. more...

Objective: To evaluate the combined effects of anemia and cognitive function on the risk of all-cause mortality in oldest-old individuals.Design: Prospective population-based cohort study.Setting and Participants: We included 1,212 oldest-old individuals (men, 416; mean age, 93.3 years).Methods: Blood tests, physical examinations, and health questionnaire surveys were conducted in 2012 were used for baseline data. Mortality was assessed in the subsequent 2014 and 2018 survey waves. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate anemia, cognitive impairment, and mortality risk. We used restricted cubic splines to analyze and visualize the association between hemoglobin (Hb) levels and mortality risk.Results: A total of 801 (66.1%) deaths were identified during the 6-year follow-up. We noted a significant association between anemia and mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.54) after adjusting for confounding variables. We also observed a dose-response relationship between the severity of anemia and mortality (P < 0.001). In the restricted cubic spline models, Hb levels had a reverse J-shaped association with mortality risk (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.84–0.93 per 10 g/L-increase in Hb levels below 130 g/L). The reverse J-shaped association persisted in individuals without cognitive impairment (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.79–0.98 per 10 g/L-increase in Hb levels below 110 g/L). For people with cognitive impairment, Hb levels were inversely associated with mortality risk (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.78–0.89 per 10 g/L-increase in Hb levels below 150 g/L). People with anemia and cognitive impairment had the highest risk of mortality (HR 2.60, 95% CI 2.06–3.27).Conclusion: Our results indicate that anemia is associated with an increased risk of mortality in oldest-old people. Cognitive impairment modifies the association between Hb levels and mortality. more...

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a global public health threat. Outside of China, Italy is one of the countries suffering the most with the COVID-19 epidemic. It is important to predict the epidemic trend of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy to help develop public health strategies.Methods: We used time-series data of COVID-19 from Jan 22 2020 to Apr 02 2020. An infectious disease dynamic extended susceptible-infected-removed (eSIR) model, which covers the effects of different intervention measures in dissimilar periods, was applied to estimate the epidemic trend in Italy. The basic reproductive number was estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and presented using the resulting posterior mean and 95% credible interval (CI). Hunan, with a similar total population number to Italy, was used as a comparative item.Results: In the eSIR model, we estimated that the mean of basic reproductive number for COVID-19 was 4.34 (95% CI, 3.04–6.00) in Italy and 3.16 (95% CI, 1.73–5.25) in Hunan. There would be a total of 182 051 infected cases (95%CI:116 114–274 378) under the current country blockade and the endpoint would be Aug 05 in Italy.Conclusion: Italy's current strict measures can efficaciously prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and should be maintained. Necessary strict public health measures should be implemented as soon as possible in other European countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases. The most effective strategy needs to be confirmed in further studies. more...

Aiming at the requirement of the hybrid sky-surface network for radar receiver, the design of analog front-end for dual-band multi-channel digital radar receiver based on software radio idea is proposed and implemented. The design takes an analog-to-digital conversion chip as the core, which achieves the amplification and sampling of 8-channel dual-band receive signals , ensures the consistency of the channel gain, and simplifies the circuit when keeping the flexibility. Finally, through the system simulation and field test of the receiver, the correctness of the design is proved, and it can meet the practical application requirements. more...

Research on learners' foreign language emotions has revealed the existence of a positive feedback loop where increased enjoyment leads to better performance which, in turn, strengthens learners' enjoyment and boosts overall happiness. The current study follows this avenue focusing on teachers' foreign language teaching enjoyment (FLTE) and its relationships with engagement, mindfulness, and burnout. The participants, who were 496 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers from Iran, completed four electronic surveys. The proposed mediation model based on data collected from EFL teachers indicated that FLTE partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and engagement as well as their burnout. The results revealed that mindful EFL teachers who enjoy the profession are more likely to experience higher levels of work engagement and job satisfaction, thus creating a positive feedback loop. In addition, the findings suggest the importance of positive emotions in EFL teachers' psychological flourishing based on the tenets of positive psychology. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research are offered. more...

Cobalt doped mesoporous silica (Co-SiO2) was prepared using the rice husks as both silicon source and template. Structural characterization of the catalysts was done by various techniques, such as Xray diffraction, FT-IR, N2 adsorption/desorption, and scanning electron microscopy. Co-SiO2 was used as a catalyst for the oxidation of 2-methyl pyridine and exhibited high substrate conversion (94.6%) and good product (2-pyridinecarboxylic acid) selectivity (92.4%). It even exhibited higher selectivity than Co-MTiO2, Co-MCM-41, Co-SBA-15. Fast hot catalyst filtration experiment proved that the catalyst acted as a heterogeneous one and it can be reused with almost the same activity. more...

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of teacher-student interaction on undergraduate students' self-efficacy in a Chinese university setting. Students came from natural science, management, economics, medicine, engineering and humanities. The empirical results demonstrate that teacher-student interaction has positive impact on students' self-efficacy and their preference of the flipped classroom. Furthermore, the positive relationship between teacher-student interaction and students' self-efficacy is partially mediated by students' preference of the flipped classroom. Educators should focus on student-centered learning and motivate students' preference of the flipped classroom. Students should be encouraged to actively participate in the flipped learning as well. It contributes to the reform of the flipped classroom and improvement of teaching quality in the universities. more...

The structure of interfacial water near suspended graphene electrodes in contact with aqueous solutions of Na2SO4, NH4Cl, and (NH4)2SO4 has been studied using confocal Raman spectroscopy, sum frequency vibrational spectroscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy. SO42- anions were found to preferentially accumulate near the interface at an open circuit potential (OCP), creating an electrical field that orients water molecules below the interface, as revealed by the increased intensity of the O-H stretching peak of H-bonded water. No such increase is observed with NH4Cl at the OCP. The intensity of the dangling O-H bond stretching peak however remains largely unchanged. The degree of orientation of the water molecules as well as the electrical double layer strength increased further when positive voltages are applied. Negative voltages on the other hand produced only small changes in the intensity of the H-bonded water peaks but affected the intensity and frequency of dangling O-H bond peaks. The TOC figure is an oversimplified representation of the system in this work. more...