Life cycle assessment of an efficient biomass power plant supported by semi-closed supercritical CO2 cycle and chemical looping air separation.

Biomass power plant with carbon capture facility has great carbon emission reduction potential due to biomass's carbon neutrality characteristic, but it has been long-time suffered from undesirable system efficiency. This paper explored the life cycle carbon emission of a high-efficient biomass power generation system, which was comprised by the semi-closed supercritical CO2 cycle and chemical looping air separation sub-units. This system was proved to be environmentally superior with the life cycle warming impact value at 97.69 kg CO2 eq./MWh, the life cycle carbon emission reduction rate was 49.61 % and 45.46 % compared with traditional biomass gasification combined cycle system and biomass chemical looping gasification combined cycle system, respectively. The fuel and materials preparation stage should receive improvement attention due to its largest emission share of 76 %. In addition, the effects of key parameters, such as CO2 to biomass ratio (CO2/C), biomass gasification temperature, oxygen carrier and biomass types on environmental performance were investigated to further reveal this system's carbon emission reduction potential. The biomass/coal co-fired system showed net zero carbon emission was achieved when biomass share exceeded only around 10 %.

A novel electrochemical sensor for glucose detection based on a Ti3C2T x /ZIF-67 nanocomposite.

A Ti3C2T x /ZIF-67 nanocomposite with outstanding conductivity has been prepared by loading ZIF-67 onto a two-dimensional Ti3C2T x nanosheet. Ti3C2T x sheets were synthesized by etching Ti3AlC2, and then ZIF-67 was grown in situ on the Ti3C2T x nanosheet. The Ti3C2T x /ZIF-67 nanocomposite exhibits excellent detection performance for glucose, with a low LOD of 3.81 µM and wide linear detection range of 5-7500 µM. This terrific result is contributed by the synergistic effect of the high electrically conductive ability of Ti3C2T x and active catalytic performance of ZIF-67. Moreover, the electrochemical sensor prepared using the Ti3C2T x /ZIF-67 nanocomposite also shows excellent selectivity, stability and repeatability for glucose detection. The Ti3C2T x /ZIF-67 nanocomposite with outstanding performance has potential applications for electrochemical sensors.

Consumer Cognition Analysis of Food Additives Based on Internet Public Opinion in China.

Food additives play an important role in the food supply, and it has been a food safety topic of great concern to the public. There has been no systematic research on Chinese consumers' concerns, attitudes, feelings, or opinions on supervision and media coverage of food additives in the past decade, which is an area worth exploring. This study was carried out to deeply understand consumers' cognition of food additives and formulate food safety risk communication strategies of food additives in China. Big data of consumers' online public opinion of China on food additives from 2011 to 2020 was collected and cleaned up using Haina Network Public Opinion Monitoring System version 2.0 (HNPOMS V2.0), followed by data analysis and visual display with the Ansi Food Safety Risk Communication System version 2.0 (AFSRCS V2.0). The results showed that the types of food additives of concern to the public have changed from 2011 to 2020, but the amount of food additives has always been of concern. The type of incident that the public is most concerned about is the illegal addition or abuse of additives. The public's confidence in food production enterprises has been insufficient, but the functions of market supervision are becoming clearer and clearer, and their expectations are constantly increasing. Consumers' cognition level increases with the strengthening of publicity and popular science, but the influence of "self-media" on public cognition is increasing day by day, and there is cognitive deviation, making it easy to mislead the public. Consumers' cognition of food additives is the basis of risk communication. Combined with the research results, this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions on the market and social supervision measures, network media guidance strategy and risk communication strategy of China, respectively.

A novel electrochemical sensor for glyphosate detection based on Ti3C2T x /Cu-BTC nanocomposite.

The copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (Cu-BTC) with outstanding chemical and physical properties, is a novel and promising material in the field of electrochemical sensing. However, it has significant limitations for direct application in electrochemical sensing due to the relatively weak conductivity of Cu-BTC. Here, the conductivity of Cu-BTC was improved by loading Cu-BTC onto two-dimensional Ti3C2T x nanosheets with high conductivity. Thanks to the synergistic effect produced by the high conductivity of Ti3C2T x and the unique catalytic activity of Cu-BTC, the Ti3C2T x /Cu-BTC nanocomposite exhibits excellent sensing performance for glyphosate, with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 2.6 × 10-14 M and wider linear sensing range of 1.0 × 10-13 to 1.0 × 10-6 M. Moreover, the electrochemical sensor based on Ti3C2T x /Cu-BTC also shows excellent selectivity, good reproducibility and stability.

Precise Dose of Folic Acid Supplementation Is Essential for Embryonic Heart Development in Zebrafish.

Folic acid, one of the 13 essential vitamins, plays an important role in cardiovascular development. Mutations in folic acid synthesis gene 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is associated with the occurrence of congenital heart disease. However, the mechanisms underlying the regulation of cardiac development by mthfr gene are poorly understood. Here, we exposed zebrafish embryos to excessive folate or folate metabolism inhibitors. Moreover, we established a knock-out mutant of mthfr gene in zebrafish by using CRISPR/Cas9. The zebrafish embryos of insufficient or excessive folic acid and mthfr-/- mutant all gave rise to early pericardial edema and cardiac defect at 3 days post fertilization (dpf). Furthermore, the folic acid treated embryos showed abnormal movement at 5 dpf. The expression levels of cardiac marker genes hand2, gata4, and nppa changed in the abnormality of folate metabolism embryos and mthfr-/- mutant, and there is evidence that they are related to the change of methylation level caused by the change of folate metabolism. In conclusion, our study provides a novel model for the in-depth study of MTHFR gene and folate metabolism. Furthermore, our results reveal that folic acid has a dose-dependent effect on early cardiac development. Precise dosage of folic acid supplementation is crucial for the embryonic development of organisms.

LPS enhances TLR4 expression and IFN­Î³ production via the TLR4/IRAK/NF­κB signaling pathway in rat pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the Toll­like receptor (TLR)4 signaling pathway in cellular response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rats were established with passive inhaling cigarette smoke plus injection of LPS. The TLR4 protein in lung tissues was determined with immunohistochemical staining and protein levels of the components of the TLR4 pathway in PASMCs were analyzed with western blotting. The production of interferon (IFN)­Î³ upon LPS stimulation in PASMCs was measured with ELISA. TLR4 expression in lung tissue from COPD rats was increased obviously compared with that in normal group. LPS enhances TLR4 expression in rat PASMCs and induced production of IFN­Î³ dramatically. LPS treatment resulted in increased phosphor­interleukin­1 receptor­associated kinase (IRAK), IκB and IκB kinase, as well as the total protein of nuclear factor (NF)­κB p65. TLR4 inhibitor TAK­242, IRAK1/4 inhibitor and NF­κB inhibitor Bay 117082 were capable of suppressing the effects of LPS. TLR4 signaling pathway is functional in PASMCs, and may be involved in the inflammatory response during the pathogenesis of COPD.