Drivers of environmental externality reduction in China's electric power industry: A spatial-temporal analysis.

China's electric power industry has made significant efforts to reduce environmental externality in the past two decades. However, the extent of the reduction, the driving factors behind it, and the regional performance are not well clarified. This study constructs a comprehensive framework that integrates the impact pathway approach with index decomposition analysis to explore the driving factors behind the reduction of environmental externality from a spatial-temporal perspective.

Fabrication of disk ultramicroelectrode using nanoskiving method.

The detection time of the ultramicroelectrode can be reduced to nanoseconds when compared to the macroscopic electrode, enabling real-time monitoring of the instantaneous electrochemical behavior of the microstructure. Preparing ultramicroelectrode thus has drawn great attention recently. In the present study, a novel method for the preparation of disk ultramicroelectrodes with controllable electrode end sizes based on the nanoskiving method is proposed.

Ion induced ultra-tough single-network ionogel.

Ionogels with high fracture strength (16.90 MPa), high Young's modulus (119.97 MPa), high tensile toughness (96.

Periodic Folded Gold Nanostructures with a Sub-10 nm Nanogap for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful spectroscopy technique for detection with its capacity for label-free, nondestructive analysis, and ultrasensitive characterization. High-performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates with homogeneity and low cost are the key factors in chemical and biomedical analysis. In this study, we propose the technique of atomic force microscopy (AFM) scratching and nanoskiving to prepare periodic folded gold (Au) nanostructures as SERS substrates.

Examining the linkage between economic policy uncertainty, coal price, and carbon pricing in China: Evidence from pilot carbon markets.

Economic policies affect companies' production decisions. And the energy consumption volume is an intuitive reflection of the enterprise's production decisions. In China, coal is the main source of carbon emissions and the most important energy source.

Fabrication and testing of a multifunctional SiO@ZnO core-shell nanospheres incorporated polymer coating for sustainable marine transport.

We report the development of a coating system relying on the incorporation of SiO@ZnO core-shell nanospheres in polyurethane media as a novel approach to achieve longevity and sustainability in marine transport. This polymeric coating showed significant improvement in surface abrasion resistance, the transition from a hydrophilic state to a hydrophobic state (~ 125.2° ± 2°), improved antifungal, antibacterial and antialgae effects which make the proposed coating ideal to protect steel surfaces against biofouling.

A probe-based nanometric morphology measurement system using intermittent-contact mode.

In the present study, a homemade probe-based nanometric morphology measurement system is proposed, which can be easily integrated with other probes, such as a diamond probe and an electrochemical electrode. In this system, an intermittent-contact mode is adopted, which is based on a set of micro-force servo modules. The micro-force serve module is mainly composed of a piezoelectric ceramic transducer, a capacitive displacement sensor, an excitation piezoelectric ceramic ring, and a four-beam spring.

Fatigue-free artificial ionic skin toughened by self-healable elastic nanomesh.

Robust ionic sensing materials that are both fatigue-resistant and self-healable like human skin are essential for soft electronics and robotics with extended service life. However, most existing self-healable artificial ionic skins produced on the basis of network reconfiguration suffer from a low fatigue threshold due to the easy fracture of low-energy amorphous polymer chains with susceptible crack propagation. Here we engineer a fatigue-free yet fully healable hybrid ionic skin toughened by a high-energy, self-healable elastic nanomesh, resembling the repairable nanofibrous interwoven structure of human skin.

Comparison of the Indentation Processes Using the Single Indenter and Indenter Array: A Molecular Dynamics Study.

Fabrication of periodic nanostructures has drawn increasing interest owing to their applications of such functional structures in optics, biomedical and power generation devices. Nano-indentation technique has been proven as a method to fabricate periodic nanostructures. In this study, the molecular dynamic simulation approach is employed to investigate the nano-indentation process for fabricating periodic nano-pit arrays using a single indenter and an indenter array.

[Market survey of Caryophylli Flos specifications].

The present study aimed to regulate the market circulation of Caryophylli Flos and formulate standards for commodity specifications and grades of Caryophylli Flos. Market survey was carried out in four major medicinal material markets with 48 samples of Caryophylli Flos collected. The property, 100-seed weight, impurity percentage, moisture, and eugenol content in Caryophylli Flos of different specifications from different producing areas were determined and analyzed.

Enhanced spreading, migration and osteodifferentiation of HBMSCs on macroporous CS-Ta - A biocompatible macroporous coating for hard tissue repair.

Macroporous tantalum (Ta) coating was produced on titanium alloy implant for bone repair by cold spray (CS) technology, which is a promising technology for oxygen sensitive materials. The surface characteristics as well as in vitro cytocompatibility were systematically evaluated. The results showed that a rough and macroporous CS-Ta coating was formed on the Ti6Al4V (TC4) alloy surfaces.

Molecular Dynamics Study on Tip-Based Nanomachining: A Review.

Tip-based nanomachining (TBN) approaches has proven to be a powerful and feasible technique for fabrication of microstructures. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has been widely applied in TBN approach to explore the mechanism which could not be fully revealed by experiments. This paper reviews the recent scientific progress in MD simulation of TBN approach.

An Endowment Effect Study in the European Union Emission Trading Market based on Trading Price and Price Fluctuation.

This paper pioneers to investigate the endowment effect in the European Union mission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as well as the impacts of trading experience and compliance pressure on the endowment effect. This study is based on the complete transaction records of the market. In the data set, the records of two consecutive reverse transactions from a same emitting company are selected.

Mechanical properties of gold nanowires prepared by nanoskiving approach.

The nanoskiving method based on nanocutting process is a new, low cost and easy way to machine nanowires. In this study, this technique is used to machine Au nanowires with different cutting directions and depths. Young's modulus and the yield strength of nanowires are then measured by an atomic force microscope-based three-point bending test.

Combined treatment with cysteamine and leukemia inhibitory factor promotes guinea pig oocyte meiosis .

The guinea pig is an excellent but underused animal model due to its reproductive biology, which poses difficulties in inducing superovulation, embryo manipulation , and embryo transfer. We examined the effects of cysteamine (Cys), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and Y27632 on guinea pig oocyte maturation (IVM). Cumulus-oocyte complexes were collected from antral follicles and classified into three different types before IVM.

Nanofluidic devices prepared by an atomic force microscopy-based single-scratch approach.

Nanofluidic chips with different numbers of nanochannels were fabricated based on a commercial AFM system using a single-scratch approach. The electrical characterization and enzymatic reactions at the nanoscale were demonstrated using the obtained chips. The effects of the number of nanochannels and the solution concentration on the measured electric current were investigated.

Mechanical characteristics of medical grade UHMWPE under dynamic compression.

The mechanical properties of medical grade ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are critical for the safety and integrity of UHMWPE implantation. Accordingly, the mechanical features of UHMWPE are tested under repeated stress-controlled and strain-controlled compression at room temperature. Some important effect factors, such as stress rate, mean stress, stress amplitude, strain rate, mean strain, strain range and multiple load steps are further considered in detail.

Fabrication of polydimethylsiloxane nanofluidic chips under AFM tip-based nanomilling process.

In current research realm, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based nanofluidic devices are widely used in medical, chemical, and biological applications. In the present paper, a novel nanomilling technique (consisting of an AFM system and a piezoelectric actuator) was proposed to fabricate nanochannels (with controllable sizes) on PDMS chips, and nanochannel size was controlled by the driving voltage and frequency inputted to the piezoelectric actuator. Moreover, microchannel and nanochannel molds were respectively fabricated by UV lithography and AFM tip-based nanomilling, and finally, PDMS slabs with micro/nanochannels were obtained by transfer process.

Dynamic patterns of H3K4me3, H3K27me3, and Nanog during rabbit embryo development.

Epigenetic modification and expression of key pluripotent factors are critical for development, cell fate determination, and differentiation in early embryos. In this study, we systematically examined the dynamic patterns of histone modifications (H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) and Nanog expression during the development of preimplantation rabbit embryos. Rabbit oocytes, 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, and 16-cell embryos, morulae, and blastocysts were collected at specific time points following superovulation and assessed for nuclear H3K4me3, H3K27me3, and Nanog expression by immunofluorescence microscopy.

ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 maintains the propagation and characteristics of hair follicle stem cells.

Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are an important source for skin tissue engineering studies and clinical applications. Here, we describe a differential enrichment approach to derive HFSCs from hair follicles of vibrissae and ear skin using the Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor Y-27632. In the presence of Y-27632, primary cultured hair follicle cells grew in clustered colonies surrounded by keratinocyte-like cells and simultaneously expressed three HFSC markers: CD34, K15, and ITGB1.

Genome-wide association analysis identifies 30 new susceptibility loci for schizophrenia.

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) with replication in 36,180 Chinese individuals and performed further transancestry meta-analyses with data from the Psychiatry Genomics Consortium (PGC2). Approximately 95% of the genome-wide significant (GWS) index alleles (or their proxies) from the PGC2 study were overrepresented in Chinese schizophrenia cases, including ∼50% that achieved nominal significance and ∼75% that continued to be GWS in the transancestry analysis. The Chinese-only analysis identified seven GWS loci; three of these also were GWS in the transancestry analyses, which identified 109 GWS loci, thus yielding a total of 113 GWS loci (30 novel) in at least one of these analyses.

A single sensor and single actuator approach to performance tailoring over a prescribed frequency band.

Restricted sensing and actuation control represents an important area of research that has been overlooked in most of the design methodologies. In many practical control engineering problems, it is necessitated to implement the design through a single sensor and single actuator for multivariate performance variables. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed for the solution to the single sensor and single actuator control problem where performance over any prescribed frequency band can also be tailored.