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The inclusion of plant material in bread formulations is a global trend, but research on the mechanisms of its effect on the structural and baking performance of the dough is lacking. Herein, edible chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) powder (CP) was substituted for wheat flour at 3–15 wt% and its effects on dough structure and rheology, bread physicochemical properties, and aroma profile were investigated. The inclusion of CP reduced the relative crystallinity and structure orderliness of starch in terms of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. Steady-state shear and oscillation tests showed that the inclusion of CP resulted in an enhanced viscoelastic behavior of dough, implying an increase in the resistance of the dough system to flow and deformation, which caused a decrease in specific volume and softness of bread compared to the control (bread without CP). The large oscillatory amplitude oscillation shear tests (LAOS) indicated that doughs exhibited Ⅰ behavior (strain thinning). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation further confirmed these findings. Significantly, formulations with 3 and 6 wt% CP not only improved the rheological and structural properties of doughs but also enriched the aroma profile of bread compared to the control. Furthermore, sensory evaluators reported that bread enriched with 6% CP scored highest in appearance, texture, and overall acceptability, meaning a product with a high sensory appeal to consumers. This work provides valuable information for an in-depth study of the relationship between bread quality and the rheological behavior and structural properties of the dough.

Pinggu Peach Orchard is one of the largest orchards in Beijing, China, providing consumers with high-quality peaches. However, a large number of discarded peach branch waste was produced along with the peach production every year, which can cause environmental pollution and have potential safety hazards since they can only be burned or stacked on the roadside or in the field. Therefore, it is important and urgent to develop recycling techniques of discarded peach branches. In this study, peach branches-cellulose nanofiber (PB-CNF) was prepared by high-pressure homogeneous (HPH) from discarded peach branches and used as a reinforcing agent to enhance mechanical performance and adsorption capacity of the gelatin hydrogel. The variations on morphological, physic-chemical, and thermal characteristics of the PB-CNF were closely related to the cycles of HPH. Rheological properties of gelatin and PB-CNF were studied to understand the viscoelastic properties as well as gelling and melting temperature of the hydrogel. The results suggested that the HPH treatment was applied to produce PB-CNF with 5 nm in diameter, low crystallinity, and uniform dispersion. PB-CNF under HPH mixed with gelatin in an appropriate ratio of 1/4 can easily obtain a stable hydrogel system, which contributed to improving the mechanical performance and adsorption capacity of the hydrogel. Therefore, the waste peach wood can be used as raw material to extract and prepare a reinforcing agent (PB-CNF).

We explore a methodology to statistically downscale snowfall – the primary driver of surface mass balance in Antarctica – from an ensemble of historical (1850–present day) simulations performed with an earth system model over the coastal region of Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica). This approach consists of associating daily snowfall simulations from a polar-oriented regional atmospheric climate model at 5.5 km spatial resolution with specific weather patterns observed over 1979–2010 CE with the atmospheric reanalyses ERA-Interim and ERA5. This association is then used to generate the spatial distribution of snowfall for the period from 1850 to present day for an ensemble of 10 members from the Community Earth System Model (CESM2). The new dataset of daily and yearly snowfall accumulation based on this methodology is presented in this paper (MASS2ANT dataset; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4287517; Ghilain et al., 2021). Based on a comparison with available ice cores and spatial reconstructions, our results show that the spatio-temporal distribution of snowfall is improved in the downscaled dataset compared with the CESM2 simulations. This dataset thus provides information that may be useful in identifying the large-scale patterns associated with the local precipitation conditions and their changes over the past century.

Seasonal prediction of extreme precipitation has long been a challenge especially for the East Asian Summer Monsoon region, where extreme rains are often disastrous for the human society and economy. This paper introduces a decision‐tree (DT) method for predicting extreme precipitation in the rainy season over South China in April–June (SC‐AMJ) and the North China Plain in July–August (NCP‐JA). A number of preceding climate indices are adopted as predictors. In both cases, the DT models involving ENSO and NAO indices exhibit the best performance with significant skills among those with other combinations of predictors and are superior to their linear counterpart, the binary logistic regression model. The physical mechanisms for the DT results are demonstrated by composite analyses of the same DT path samples. For SC‐AMJ, an extreme season can be determined mainly via two paths: the first follows a persistent negative NAO phase in February–March; the second goes with decaying El Niño. For NCP‐JA, an extreme season can also be traced via two paths: the first is featured by “non El Niño” and an extremely negative NAO phase in the preceding winter; the second follows a shift from El Niño in the preceding winter to La Niña in the early summer. Most of the mechanisms underlying the decision rules have been documented in previous studies, while some need further studies. The present results suggest that the decision‐tree approach takes advantage of discovering and incorporating various nonlinear relationships in the climate system, hence is of great potential for improving the prediction of seasonal extreme precipitation for given regions with increasing sample observations.

The surface mass balance (SMB) over the Antarctic Ice Sheet displays large temporal and spatial variations. Due to the complex Antarctic topography, modelling the climate at high resolution is crucial to accurately represent the dynamics of SMB. While ice core records provide a means to infer the SMB over centuries, the view is very spatially constrained. General circulation models (GCMs) estimate its spatial distribution over centuries, but with a resolution that is too coarse to capture the large variations due to local orographic effects. We have therefore explored a methodology to statistically downscale snowfall accumulation, the primary driver of SMB, from climate model historical simulations (1850–present day) over the coastal region of Dronning Maud Land. An analog method is set up over a period of 30 years with the ERA-Interim and ERA5 reanalyses (1979–2010 AD) and associated with snowfall daily accumulation forecasts from the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3) at 5.5 km spatial resolution over Dronning Maud in East Antarctica. The same method is then applied to the period from 1850 to present day using an ensemble of ten members from the CESM2 model. This method enables to derive a spatial distribution of the accumulation of snowfall, the principal driver of the SMB variability over the region. A new dataset of daily and yearly snowfall accumulation based on this methodology is presented in this paper (MASS2ANT dataset, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4287517, Ghilain et al. (2021)), along with comparisons with ice core data and available spatial reconstructions. It offers a more detailed spatio-temporal view of the changes over the past 150 years compared to other available datasets, allowing a possible connection with the ice core records, and provides information that may be useful in identifying the large-scale patterns associated to the local precipitation conditions and their changes over the past century.

On the decadal time scales, while the influence of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on total or average precipitation had been extensively studied, works about its influence on precipitation extremes were limited, especially lack of a global picture. Using two independent methods, nonstationary generalized extreme value (GEV) model which directly incorporates PDO index into its location parameter and moving GEV model which fits the annual extremes with a sliding window of 30 years and regresses the resulted changing location parameter onto the PDO index, we show that precipitation extremes over a large portion of stations are significantly affected by the PDO with stations in the Pacific Rim demonstrating distinct regional patterns. Over eastern China, the famous ‘southern flood and norther drought’ pattern corresponding to a positive PDO phase extends to extreme rainfalls; over Australia, a tri-polar pattern was revealed, in which the extremes over central Australia positively correlate with the PDO index and those over eastern and western Australia show a negative correlation; and the North America also demonstrates a dipole pattern, by which the northwest (southeast) experiences less (more) intense extreme rainfall in a PDO positive phase. Moreover, the western Europe and the large area between the Ural mountain and eastern Europe were discovered to hold a positive correlation with the PDO in their precipitation extremes. A comparative analysis to the local circulation controlling the precipitation extremes under different PDO phases further confirms the discovered relationships above. These findings have important implication for the future projection of extreme precipitation over related regions because the internal climate variability should be appropriately accounted for beyond the effects induced by global warming.

The potential predictability of seasonal extreme precipitation accumulation (SEPA) across mainland China is evaluated, based on daily precipitation observations during 1960–2013 at 675 stations. The potential predictability value (PPV) of SEPA is calculated for each station by decomposing the observed SEPA variance into a part associated with stochastic daily rainfall variability and another part associated with longer-time-scale climate processes. A Markov chain model is constructed for each station and a Monte Carlo simulation is applied to estimate the stochastic part of the variance. The results suggest that there are more potentially predictable regions for summer than for the other seasons, especially over southern China, the Yangtze River valley, the north China plain, and northwestern China. There are also regions of large PPVs in southern China for autumn and winter and in northwestern China for spring. The SEPA series for the regions of large PPVs are deemed not entirely stochastic, either with long-term trends (e.g., increasing trends in inland northwestern China) or significant correlation with well-known large-scale climate processes (e.g., East Asian winter monsoon for southern China in winter and El Niño for the Yangtze River valley in summer). This fact not only verifies the claim that the regions have potential predictability but also facilitates predictive studies of the regional extreme precipitation associated with large-scale climate processes.

Eggs are rich in high-quality protein and nutrients. The quality and nutritional value of eggs with different freshness grades are quite different. In this paper, the near-infrared analysis technique was used to detect 180 eggs samples stored within 50 d under the condition of 25 °C temperature and 60% humidity. According to the change of freshness index under different storage time, the eggs were classified and the qualitative classification model was established. The results showed that the near infrared analysis technique was an effective method for fast prediction of eggs in the fields of freshness and edible condition.

Combination cancer therapy has attracted considerable attention due to its enhanced antitumor efficacy and reduced toxicity granted by synergistic effects over monotherapy. The application of nanotechnology is expected to achieve coencapsulation of multiple anticancer agents with enhanced therapeutic efficacy. Herein, a unique nanomicelle based on amphiphilic dendrimer (AmD) consisting of a hydrophilic polyamidoamine dendritic shell and a hydrophobic polylactide core is developed for effectively loading and shuttling 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) and doxorubicin (Dox). The yielded drug-encapsulated dendritic nanomicelle (5-Fu/Dox-DNM) has a modest average size of 68.6 ± 3.3 nm and shows pH-sensitive drug release manner. The parallel activity of 5-Fu and Dox show synergistic anticancer efficacy. The IC50 value of 5-Fu/Dox-DNM toward human breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells was 0.25 μg/mL, presenting an 11.2-fold and 6.1-fold increase in cytotoxicity compared to Dox-DNM and 5-Fu-DNM, respectively. Furthermore...

Monthly rainfall in the Heihe River Basin (HRB) was simulated by the dynamical downscaling model (DDM) and statistical downscaling model (SDM). The rainy-season rainfall in the HRB obtained by SDM and DDM was compared with the observed datasets (OBS) over the period of 2003–2012. The results showed the following: (1) Both methods reasonably reproduced the spatial pattern of rainy-season rainfall in the HRB with a high-level skill. Rainfall simulated by DDM was better than that by SDM in the upstream, with biases of −12.09 and −13.59 %, respectively; rainfall simulated by SDM was better than that by DDM in the midstream, with biases of 3.91 and −23.22 %, respectively; there was little difference between the rainfall simulated by SDM and DDM in the downstream, with biases of −10.89 and −9.50 %, respectively. (2) Both methods reasonably reproduced monthly rainfall in rainy season in different subregions. Rainfall simulated by DDM was better than that by SDM in May and July in the upstream, whereas rainfall simulated by SDM was closer to OBS except August in the midstream and except August and September in the downstream. (3) For multi-year mean rainy-season rainfall in different stations, there was a little difference between the rainfall simulated by DDM and SDM in Tuole station in the upstream, with biases of −13.16 and −12.40 %, respectively; rainfall in Zhangye station simulated by SDM was overestimated with bias of 14.02 %, and rainfall simulated by DDM was underestimated with bias of −14.60 %; rainfall in Dingxin station simulated by DDM was reproduced better than that by SDM, with biases of −19.34 and −32.75 %, respectively.

Digital lightning is an important thematic branch of the digital earth. Lightning data are complex, momentary, discrete, dynamic and spatio-temporal in nature. Hence, making great progress in their management, analysis and service is challenging. Many studies have been directed towards this field all over the world. Some different relevant systems are currently available. However, most of them focus on a single or a few aspects of lightning applications, rather than taking an overall account of lightning detection, management, analysis and service from the strategic perspective of the digital earth. Lightning disaster also demands a better developed spatial information technology in this field than at present. The idea of the digital earth offers a reasonable scheme to address these issues. Based on reviews of the concept, development and progress of the digital earth, an integrated technical framework of a digital lightning prototype system (DLPS) is proposed, including its data, functions and implementa...

A C3-symmetrical 4,4″,4⁗-nitrilotris(2′-methyl-[1,1′-biphenyl]-3-carboxylic acid) (4) derived from nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) was found to selectively bind Zinc(ii) ions both in DMSO or MeOH. A synergistic effect of the anionic counter ion SO42− on the sensing behaviour of 4 to metal ions was clearly observed in DMSO. Interestingly, 4 showed a rapid hypochromatic shift in emission ascribed to the deprotonation and the concomitant formation of a 4–metal complex upon the addition of Zn2+ ions, instead of the bathochromic shift and emission enhancement attributed to the SO42−-involved hydrogen-bonding interaction for Ni2+, Li+, Mg2+, and Na+ ions at ratios below 1:1 in DMSO. The observed sensing process of sulfate salts associated with the SO42−-involved hydrogen-bonding interaction, deprotonation, and the concomitant complexation can also be clearly monitored by titration methods utilising UV-vis, fluorescence, and NMR spectroscopy in solution. In comparison with 4, compound 1 showed an obvious difference in the binding interaction with zinc sulfate in MeOH, probably owing to the decreased acidity. Anion-induced hydrogen-bonding interactions and deprotonation of the COOH protons in the excited state also endowed 4 versatile spectroscopic properties. The addition of F− and SO42− anions resulted in a remarkable enhancement probably related with a rigidifying effect. 2,2′,2″-Nitrilotribenzoic acid can be utilised as a potential scaffold to build a series of conjugated fluorescent sensors by its chelation effect owing to the rigid cavity pre-organised by the triphenylamine moiety and the carboxylic groups and the conjugation extension in the 4,4′,4″ positions.

Lightning disaster has caused billions of dollars of property and infrastructure damages, unexpected disruption to socioeconomic activities and tragic loss of human beings each year. Considerable work has been done on lightning mechanism and its detection approach. However, little work was concerned about the effective management of lightning. In this paper, both a geographic information science (GIS) and a database management system (DBMS) were used to manage the lightning spatial data and provide service products in the proposed system. Some of the basic methods and strategies such as architecture design, function dividing and database classification were outlined. The lightning spatial database comprises data on lightning thematic, fundamental geographic and other raster imagery data, readily providing information for further development of lightning relevant applications. The proposed system was exemplified in Hainan area. As the system runs stable and provides a valuable tool for the further study on lightning, it can be recommended to a national level of China.