Green Method for Fabrication of an Underwater Superoleophobic Phosphor-Copper Mesh and Transportation of Oily Liquids.

Sea cucumber-shaped Cu2O nanostructures are constructed on a phosphor-copper mesh by employing a one-step immersion process accomplished in distilled water without introducing any additional reagent. The phosphor-copper mesh with a Cu2O structure thereon exhibits significant hydrophilicity and induces a large superoleophobic force at the oil/water interface. The method used for preparing the Cu2O nanostructures represents an inexpensive, fast, and environmentally friendly approach, along with satisfying the requirements of large-scale preparation. It is found that the pickling degree of the phosphor-copper mesh during surface cleaning plays a major role in the oxidation process of the surface for the growth of Cu2O nanostructures. Nanostructures with different morphologies can be achieved by accurately controlling the surface pickling degree. Interestingly, an underwater superoleophobic "pipe" developed using the as-prepared phosphor-copper mesh can realize gravity (buoyancy)-driven oily liquid transport in an aqueous environment, with no associated contamination by the oil. This study provides a simple method to realize surface-functionalization and demonstrates a new route for achieving liquid transportation without external energy and would help to design smart aquatic devices for diverse liquid transport thereby, enabling oil handling and oil spill cleanup.

Mitochondria are the primary target in the induction of apoptosis by chiral ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes in cancer cells.

A series of novel chiral ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes (Δ-Ru1, Λ-Ru1, Δ-Ru2, Λ-Ru2, Δ-Ru3, Λ-Ru3) were synthesized and evaluated to determine their antiproliferative activities. Colocalization, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay studies showed that these ruthenium(II) complexes accumulated preferentially in the mitochondria and exhibited cytotoxicity against various cancer cells in vitro. The complex Δ-Ru1 is of particular interest because it was found to have half-maximal inhibitory concentrations comparable to those of cisplatin and better activity than cisplatin against a cisplatin-resistant cell line, A549-CP/R. Δ-Ru1 induced alterations in the mitochondrial membrane potential and triggered intrinsic mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in HeLa cells, which involved the regulation of Bcl-2 family members and the activation of caspases. Taken together, these data suggest that Δ-Ru1 may be a novel mitochondria-targeting anticancer agent.

Spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of coordinated development of urbanization and ecological environment in eastern Russia-Perspectives from the 3D global trend and 2D plane analysis.

Under the background of "the Belt and Road" and "the economic corridor of China, Mongolia and Russia" initiatives, it has great value to study the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the coordinated development between the urbanization and ecological environment in eastern Russia (the Siberian Federal District and the Far East Federal District). In this paper, we studied the urbanization development level, eco-environment development level, and their coupling coordinated development degree during 2005-2018 in the eastern Russia from the perspectives of the 3D global trend and 2D plane analysis. First, combining with the Population-Economic-Sociology and Pressure-State-Response models, the urbanization development level and eco-environment development level were calculated by the comprehensive weighting method of entropy weight and variation coefficient for eastern Russia. Second, the coupling coordinated development degree of the urbanization development level and eco-environment development level was measured by the coupling coordination model for eastern Russia. Finally, the spatial differentiation of the urbanization development level, the eco-environment development level and their coupling coordinated development degree was performed respectively by the 3D global trend and 2D plane analysis using ArcGIS. The results are as following. First, the comprehensive urbanization development level of eastern Russia has increased from 2005 to 2018, and the economic urbanization is the main factor that affects the urbanization development in eastern Russia. The comprehensive eco-environment development level of eastern Russia has decreased from 2005 to 2018, and the eco-environment pressure is the main factor that affects the eco-environment development in eastern Russia. The coupling coordination degree of the urbanization development and eco-environment development has increased from 2005 to 2018. However, it is still in the uncoordinated stage. Second, from 2005 to 2018, the urbanization development level of the Siberian Federal District is higher than that of the Far East Federal District. The eco-environment development level of the Siberian Federal District is balanced to that of the Far East Federal District. The coupling coordination degree of the Siberian Federal District is higher than that of the Far East Federal District. Among the Siberian and Far East Federal Districts, most of the federal subjects belong to the uncoordinated stage of the urbanization development and the eco-environment development. Third, the urbanization development level, the eco-environment development level, and their coupling coordinated development level are all spatially imbalanced in the eastern Russia, which show the "High West, Low East" and "High Center, Low North and Low South" spatial pattern from the perspectives of the 3D global trend and 2D plane analysis. The areas with high levels are concentrated in the Novosibirsk Region, Altay Territory, Kemerovo Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, and Irkutsk Region. The areas with low ones are mostly in the Republic of Altay and Chukotka Autonomous Area. Finally, we suggest policies and strategies that can boost the growth and development of the urbanization and the eco-environment in the Sino-Russian border areas.

Evolution characteristics of temporal and spatial pattern of Russian economic differences since the 21st century.

Under the background of "the Belt and Road" and "the economic corridor of China, Mongolia and Russia" initiatives, it is of great significance to study the temporal and spatial economic pattern in the Russian Federation. Based on the economic development difference index, regional economic grade index, global trend analysis tool and spatial autocorrelation model, this paper analyzes the temporal and spatial pattern evolution characteristics of Russian economic differences from 2002 to 2020. The results are as following. First, although the economic imbalance among various federal subjects has been decreasing, the economic polarization has been still severe between the prosperous developed regions and the stagnant backward regions during 2002-2020. Russia's economy shows a trend of changing from significant positive correlation in strong agglomeration space to positive correlation in weak agglomeration space, and then to random distribution. Second, there has been great differences of the economic development among various federal subjects. The economic grade of the Russian federal subjects presents a significant spatial differentiation pattern. The Russian Federation's economic resources are concentrated in the first-class federal subject (Moscow City), second-class federal subjects (Tumen Region, Moscow Region and Saint-Petersburg city) and a few third-class federal subjects (Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Area, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Area, Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnodar Territory, Sverdlovsk Region, etc). Third, the Russian Federation's economy presents "High Core, Low Periphery", "High West, Low East" and "High south, Low north" spatial differentiation pattern. The economic hot regions coincide with the high-class economic regions, which are mainly distributed in the contiguous areas of Ural Federal District and Volga Federal District, as well as the Moscow City, Moscow Region, Saint-Petersburg city, Krasnodar Territory and Rostov Region. The economic cold regions coincide with the low-class economic regions, which are mainly located in the Far East Federal District, the east of Siberian Federal District, the north of North West Federal District and the south of North-Caucasian Federal District. Finally, we suggest the recommendation for policy makers in Russia. And we propose the future research ideas.

Influence of Texture on the Mechanical Properties of a Mg-6Al-1Zn-0.9Sn Alloy Processed by ECAP.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of a Mg-6Al-1Zn-0.9Sn alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at temperatures of 250 °C and 300 °C were investigated. It was found that the refinement of the microstructure was very dependent on the processing temperature. The main reason for the difference in grain refinement was the precipitation of secondary-phase particles. Texture information obtained by electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) showed the gradual formation of a 45° texture during the ECAP process, while the maximum intensity was different for processing temperatures at 250 °C and 300 °C. By calculating the contribution from different strengthening mechanisms, it was found that a 45° texture had a huge influence on grain boundary strengthening and thus the yield strength.

[Spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of county-scale environmental pollution in Jilin Province, Northeast China]. / å‰æž—çœåŽ¿åŸŸçŽ¯å¢ƒæ±¡æŸ“çš„æ—¶ç©ºæ¼”å˜ç‰¹å¾ä¸Žå½±å“å› ç´ .

Based on pollutant emissions and social-economic data during 2011 and 2015, we selec-ted the total emission index of four pollutants, including the industrial source, agricultural source, and urban living source. The comprehensive index of environmental pollution and sub-source pollution index were built to reflect the pollution of Jilin Province at county scale. Furthermore, the Moran's I, spatial-temporal transition analysis, and standard deviation ellipse analysis were used to quantitatively examine the spatial-temporal evolutionary characteristics of environmental pollution in Jilin Province. A spatial econometric model was built to analyze the influencing factors of environmental pollution. The results showed that environmental pollution in Jilin Province presented spatial agglomeration characteristics, which was mainly concentrating in central areas such as Changchun and Jilin cities. There were obvious regional differences in the spatial distribution of environmental pollution from different sources. There were spatial correlation of the total environmental pollution and agricultural source pollution separately at county scale in Jilin Province. The correlation structure stability of the spatial distribution of environmental pollution was high, which had path locking characteristic. The spatial distribution of environmental pollution showed a northwest-southeast distribution pattern and a spread from the center to the surroundings. The barycenter of environmental pollution moved in the area between 43.65-43.66° N and 125.83-125.84° E. The level of regional economic development, urbanization level and agricultural production were main driving factors for county-scale environmental pollution and industrial source pollution. The adjustment and optimization of industrial structure had improved the overall environmental pollution and industrial source pollution situation. Overuse of chemical fertilizers significantly increased agricultural source pollution. The level of economic development and urbanization were the main drivers of urban living source pollution. The overall environmental pollution and agricultural source pollution had spatial diffusion effects, and their pollution status was closely related to the overall environmental pollution and agricultural source pollution status in adjacent areas, respectively.

Relationship between the abnormal diastolic vortex structure and impaired left ventricle filling in patients with hyperthyroidism.

Intraventricular hydrodynamics plays an important role in evaluating cardiac function. Relationship between diastolic vortex and left ventricular (LV) filling is still rarely elucidated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the evolution of vortex during diastole in hyperthyroidism (HT) and explore the alteration of hydromechanics characteristics with sensitive indexes.Forty-three patients diagnosed with HT were classified into 2 groups according to whether myocardial damage existed: simple hyperthyroid group (HT1, n = 21) and thyrotoxic cardiomyopathy (HT2, n = 22). Twenty-seven age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers were enrolled as the control group. Offline vector flow mapping (VFM model) was used to analyze the LV diastolic blood flow patterns and fluid dynamics. Hemodynamic parameters, vortex area (A), circulation (C), and intraventricular pressure gradient (ΔP), in different diastolic phases (early, mid, and late) were calculated and analyzed.HT2, with a lower E/A ratio and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), had a larger left atrium diameter (LAD) compared with those of the control group and HT1 (P < .05). Compared with the control group, the vortex size and strength, intraventricular pressure gradient during early and mid-diastole were higher in HT1 and lower in HT2 (P < .05). And in late diastole, the vortex size and strength, intraventricular pressure gradient of HT2 became higher than those of the control group (P < .05). Good correlation could be found between CE and E/A (P < .05), CM and ΔPM (P < .01), CL and FT3 (P < .05).VFM is proven practical for detecting the relationship between the changes of left ventricular diastolic vortex and the abnormal left ventricular filling.

[Spatial-temporal evolution characteristic of coordination between urbanization and eco-environment in Jilin Province, Northeast China].

By building urbanization and eco-environment evaluation index systems, the levels of urbanization and eco-environment, and the degree of their coupling coordination of Jilin Province from 2000 to 2012 were evaluated. The level of comprehensive urbanization showed a continued growth trend, and the economic urbanization contributed the largest share. The eco-environment comprehensive level fluctuated upward. The eco-environment state, response and pressure increased faster since the implementation of the strategy of revitalizing Northeast China and other old industrial regions. Coupling coordination degree between urbanization and eco-environment increased continuously, from uncoordinated status to advanced coordinated status, changing from eco-environment lagged to urbanization lagged. The level of urbanization in central region was higher than east and west regions in Jilin Province, but its eco-environment level was low. Coupling coordination degree in Changchun was the highest, and that of Baishan was the lowest. Coupling coordination degree of Chang-Ji integrated region was always at the leading level, but the level of eco-environment lagged behind was growing since 2000. Coupling coordination degree of Siping, Liaoyuan, Songyuan and Yanbian increased, but that of Baicheng decreased.

A ruthenium(II) complex inhibits tumor growth in vivo with fewer side-effects compared with cisplatin.

The antitumor activity of a ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complex, Δ-[Ru(bpy)2(HPIP)](ClO4)2 (Δ-Ru1, where bpy=2,2'-bipyridine, HPIP=2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline), was evaluated. The in vivo experiments showed that Δ-Ru1 inhibited the growth of a human cervical carcinoma cell line (HeLa) xenotransplanted into nude mice with efficiency similar to that of cisplatin. Histopathology examination of the tumors from treated xenograft models was consistent with apoptosis in tumor cells. Importantly, in striking contrast with cisplatin, Δ-Ru1 did not cause any detectable side effects on the kidney, liver, peripheral neuronal system, or the hematological system at the pharmacologically effective dose. The preclinical studies reported here provide support for the clinical use of Δ-Ru1 as an exciting new drug candidate with lower toxicity than cisplatin, endowed with proapoptotic properties.

Superhydrophobic cuprous oxide nanostructures on phosphor-copper meshes and their oil-water separation and oil spill cleanup.

A simple aqueous solution-immersion process was established to fabricate highly dense ordered Cu2O nanorods on commercial phosphor-copper mesh, with which the preparation was accomplished in distilled water. The present method, with the advantages of simple operation, low cost, short reaction time, and environmental friendliness, can be well adopted to fabricate desired Cu2O nanostructures on the phosphor-copper mesh under mild conditions. After surface modification with 1-dodecanethiol, the Cu2O nanostructure obtained on the phosphor-copper mesh exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Besides, a "mini boat" made from the as-prepared superhydrophobic phosphor-copper mesh can float freely on water surface and in situ collect oil from water surface. This demonstrates that the present approach, being facile, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly, could find promising application in oil-water separation and off shore oil spill cleanup.

[Spatial patterns of eco-environmental vulnerability in Daqing City].

This paper established an index system for the assessment of eco-environmental vulnerability in Daqing City, from the aspects of sensitivity and response capability, and aiming at the major disturbances from crude oil exploitation and production activities. The improved entropy method was adopted to evaluate the weights of the indices, and the spatial patterns of eco-environment vulnerability in the City were analyzed, according to the model functions. In 2009, the more sensitive areas of the eco-environment in the City were mainly concentrated in the intensive regions of crude oil exploitation, processing, and petrochemical industry, and the ecological problems such as land salinization were the secondary causes for this higher sensitivity. The overall response capability of the eco-environment to unfavorable disturbances was relatively high, which reduced the eco-environment vulnerability to some extent. There was a great spatial difference in the eco-environment vulnerability in the City. The vulnerability was comparatively higher in the districts of Honggang, Sartu and Longfeng, with the degree being 0.80, 0.71 and 0.68, but lower in Ranghulu and Datong, with the degree of 0.20 and 0.04, respectively.