Evidence of Environmental Changes Caused by Chinese Island-Building.

This paper quantifies environmental effects of island-building operations in the South China Sea, which result from dredging and can negatively impact marine flora, fauna, and ecosystems. The extent of the damage caused by island-creation is believed to be large, as the South China Sea reefs support the largest concentration of marine biodiversity on Earth. Through use of satellite imagery, we investigate the island-construction on Mischief Reef in the South China Sea, showing backscatter increases of up to 350% in waters surrounding the reef, with plumes of excess sediment exceeding 250 km at times during island-construction, and the cumulative area impacted by dredging exceeding 1,200 km.

Synthesis and Properties of a Photopatternable Lithium-Ion Conducting Solid Electrolyte.

One of the important considerations for the development of on-chip batteries is the need to photopattern the solid electrolyte directly on electrodes. Herein, the photopatterning of a lithium-ion conducting solid electrolyte is demonstrated by modifying a well-known negative photoresist, SU-8, with LiClO . The resulting material exhibits a room temperature ionic conductivity of 52 µS cm with a wide electrochemical window (>5 V).

Carbon-ionogel supercapacitors for integrated microelectronics.

To exceed the performance limits of dielectric capacitors in microelectronic circuit applications, we design and demonstrate on-chip coplanar electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), or supercapacitors, employing carbon-coated gold electrodes with ionogel electrolyte. The formation of carbon-coated microelectrodes is accomplished by solution processing and results in a ten-fold increase in EDLC capacitance compared to bare gold electrodes without carbon. At frequencies up to 10 Hz, an areal capacitance of 2.

Oxygen, oxysterols, ouabain, and ozone: a cautionary tale.

The recent account of the oxidation of tissue cholesterol by ozone created in human arterial plaques by the oxidation of water by electronically excited (singlet) dioxygen depends on the identification of the oxysterols formed and on the presumption that they are formed uniquely by ozone action. The chief oxysterols found, 3beta-hydroxy-5-oxo-5,6-secocholestan-6-al and 3beta,5-dihydroxy-5beta-B-norcholestane-6beta-carboxaldehyde, were identified as their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones by chromatographic properties and a single mass spectral ion m/z 597 interpreted as [M-H](-). Conventional identification procedures for oxysterols were not conducted.