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Background and aims: Systematic reviews of the relationship between alcohol consumption and all‐cause mortality have reported different relative risk (RR) curves, possibly due to the choice of reference group. Results have varied from 'J‐shaped' curves, where low‐volume consumption is associated with reduced risk, to monotonically increased risk with increasing consumption. We summarised the evidence on alcohol consumption and all‐cause mortality exclusively from systematic reviews using lifetime abstainers or low‐volume/occasional drinkers as the reference group. Methods: We conducted a systematic umbrella review of systematic reviews of the relationship between alcohol consumption and all‐cause mortality in prospective cohort studies using a reference group of lifetime abstainers or low‐volume/occasional drinkers. Several databases (PubMed/Medline/Embase/PsycINFO/Cochrane Library) were searched to March 2022. Reviews were assessed for risk of bias, and those with reference groups containing former drinkers were excluded. Results: From 2149 articles retrieved, 25 systematic reviews were identified, and five did not include former drinkers in the reference group. Four of the five included reviews had high risk of bias. Three reviews reported a J‐shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and all‐cause mortality with significant decreased risk for low‐volume drinking (RR range 0.84 to 0.95), while two reviews did not. The one review at low risk of bias reported monotonically increased risk with greater consumption (RRs = 1.02, 1.13, 1.33 and 1.52 for low‐, medium‐, high‐ and higher‐volume drinking, respectively, compared with occasional drinking). All five reviews reported significantly increased risk with higher levels of alcohol consumption (RR range 1.28 to 3.70). Sub‐group analyses were reported by sex and age; however, there were evidence gaps for many important factors. Conversely, 17 of 20 excluded systematic reviews reported decreased mortality risk for low‐volume drinking. Conclusions: Over 70% of systematic reviews and meta‐analyses published to March 2022 of all‐cause mortality risk associated with alcohol consumption did not exclude former drinkers from the reference group and may therefore be biased by the 'sick‐quitter effect'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium‐sulfur (K−S) batteries are regarded as the most promising energy storage applications due to its excellent specific capacity, widespread resources and low‐cost of potassium and sulfur. As a cathode material, the unique solid‐solid reaction mechanism of sulfurized poly(acrylonitrile) (SPAN) effectively restrains the shuttle effect and closes to 100 % for coulombic efficiency. However, the application of SPAN is still limited by its sluggish kinetics and inferior cycle performance. Herein, a SPAN with Se as eutectic accelerator (Se‐SPAN) was synthesized via vacuum melting and sulfurization treatments, Se not only enhances the reaction kinetics of S but also improves utilization rate of S. Compared to SPAN, the Se‐SPAN shows outstanding capacity of 1551 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and 1311.3 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C. In addition, a superior cycle stability is acquired with a capacity retention of 87.4 % at 0.5 C for 100 cycles. Therefore, this work provides a strategy to design high performance electrode materials for K−S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the countries with the highest desertification in the world, sand ecological restoration and management have been given great attention in China. However, a systematic and comprehensive review of sand-restoration technology is still lacking. Therefore, with "sand restoration technology" and "China" as the keywords, we reviewed 226 English articles and 512 Chinese articles based on the Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure data sources from 1990 to 2021. The results showed that (1) The number of published articles about sand-restoration technology increased during the last 30 years, experiencing a slow–fast–steady growth process. (2) The analysis of keyword hotspots showed that the literature focuses on restoration, Maowusu sandy land, vegetation restoration, sand barrier, governance model, etc. (3) Biological restoration techniques are dominant among sand-restoration techniques and are mainly carried out through plant and physical technology. (4) Composite sand-restoration technology, including arbors, shrubs, grass, and soil, is a progressive research topic for the future. By installing an incorporated device for sand-restoration generation, we offer a theoretical foundation for strengthening sand-restoration generation in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the in situ resource utilization of CO 2 on Mars for oxygen and carbon monoxide production has attracted increasing attention. Dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) have great potential for large-scale industrial application of CO 2 decomposition, and the nonlinear behaviors of DBDs are directly related to the discharge stability. In this paper, a fluid model is built to investigate the influence of gap width on temporal nonlinear behaviors in CO 2 DBDs driven by tailored voltages under Martian conditions (the pressure and temperature are 4.5 Torr and 210 K, respectively). The simulation results show that, with the increase in the gap width, the discharge evolves from period-one state into period-two state, then changes into chaos, and finally undergoes an inverse period-doubling bifurcation from reverse period-two discharge to period-one discharge. After the CO 2 discharge is extinguished, the electron density drops rapidly, and the dominant charged particles in the discharge region are heavy CO3− and CO2+ ions. As the gap width increases, the heavy ions produced by the previous discharge cannot be completely dissipated and stay in the sheath region, which makes the subsequent discharge easy to be ignited and reduces the breakdown voltage, leading to the evolution from period-one discharge to period-two discharge. When the gap width is increased to 5 mm, a lot of charged particles stay in the discharge gap, and these charged particles, especially electrons, are driven to the electrodes by the applied voltage, forming a reverse electric field, which inhibits the development of positive discharge and facilitates the formation of negative discharge. Then, as the gap width continues to increase, the density and spatial distribution of residual ions in the sheath region at the beginning of the negative discharge for two consecutive voltage periods are gradually equal, resulting in the discharge evolution from reverse period-two state to reverse period-one state. This study could deepen the understanding of the underpinning physics of nonlinear behaviors, and provide a groundwork for actively regulating the evolution of nonlinear behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the principal part of economic and social development, the demographic factor is the fundamental factor driving the change of water resources, and achieving the harmony of human and water has been one of the most important tasks to promote high-quality development. Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, this article applied panel data for 19 years and employed impulse response functions and threshold models to do a mechanism analysis of the impact of population structure changes on the water consumption changes of the three main industries. The study found the following: Firstly, the urban population promotes an increase of the total water consumption, industrial water consumption, and domestic water consumption, which suppresses agricultural water consumption and shows an inverted "N" trend. Secondly, the aging population has expanded the total water consumption, and agricultural and domestic water demand, and reduced industrial water consumption. Thirdly, food consumption helps to reduce the total water consumption and agricultural water consumption, but increases the industrial water consumption and the growth rate rises. Fourthly, the increase in the proportion of agricultural employment reduces the total water consumption, and agricultural and domestic water consumption, and increases industrial water consumption. Fifthly, the total water consumption and domestic water consumption both increase with the improvement of the population education level, while the agricultural water consumption declines first and then rises. The empirical results can provide a reference for analyzing the driving mechanisms of regional water consumption changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]