Carbon storage and sequestration rate assessment and allometric model development in young teak plantations of tropical moist deciduous forest, India

Carbon （C） sequestration through plantations is one of the important mitigation measures for rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This study aimed to assess C stocks and their sequestration rate, and to develop allometric models for estimation of C stocking in age-series young teak （Tectona grandis） planta- tions （1, 5, 11, 18, 24 and 30 years） by using biomass and productivity estimation and regression, respectively. These plantations were raised in tropical moist deciduous forests of Kumaun Himalayan tarai. Total C stocks estimated for these plantations were 1.6, 15.8, 35.4, 39.0, 61.5 and 73.2 Mg ha-1, respectively. Aboveground and belowground C storage in- creased with increasing plantation age; however, the range of their percentage contribution showed little variation （87.8-88.2 and 11.7-12.7 %, respectively）, The rate of C sequestration for these respective plantations was 1.06, 6.95, 5.46, 5.42, 3.39 and 5.37 Mg ha-1 a-1. Forty percent of the aboveground annual storage was retained in the tree while 60 % was released in the form of foliage, twigs, and fruit litter. In the case of total （tree） annual production, 43 % was retained while 57 % was released as litter including root. C stock, C sequestration rate, accumulation ratio （1.4-18.1）, root：shoot C ratio （0.61--0.13） and production efficiency （0.01-0.18） were comparable to some previous reports for other species and forests. These data could be useful in deciding the harvesting age for young teak with respect to C storage and sequestrationrate. Four allometric models using linear regression equations were developed between biomass （twice the C stock） and diameter, girth, and height of the tree at different ages. The diameter model was found more suitable for C stock predic- tion in similar areas.

Rate Coefficients and Branching Ratio for Multi-Channel Hydrogen Abstractions from CH3OH by F

The hydrogen abstraction reaction F+CH3OH has two possible reaction pathways: HF+CH3O and HF+CH2OH. Despite the absence of intrinsic barriers for both channels, the former has a branching ratio comparable to the latter, which is far from the statistical limit of 0.25 (one out of four available H atoms). Furthermore, the measured branching ratio of the two abstraction channels spans a large range and is not quantitatively reproduced by previous theoretical predictions based on the transition-state theory with the stationary point information calculated at the levels of MФller-Plesset perturbation theory and G2. This work reports a theoretical investigation on the kinetics and the associated branching ratio of the two competing channels of the title reaction using a quasi-classical trajectory approach on an accurate full-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) fitted by the permutation invariant polynomial-neural network approach to ca. 1.21x10^5 points calculated at the explicitly correlated (F12a) version of coupled cluster singles doubles and perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) level with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. The calculated room temperature rate coeffcient and branching ratio of the HF+CH3O channel are in good agreement with the available experimental data. Furthermore, our theory predicts that rate coeffcients have a slightly negative temperature dependence, consistent with barrierless nature of the reaction.

Intrinsic product polarization and branch ratio in the S（~1D,~3P）＋HD reaction on three electronic states

The intrinsic product polarization and intramolecular isotope effect of the S（~1D,~3P） ＋ HD reaction have been investigated on both the lowest singlet state（1A） and the triplet state（3A and 3A） potential energy surfaces by using quasi-classical trajectory and quantum mechanical methods.The calculations indicate that intramolecular isotope effects are different on the three electronic states.The stereodynamics study shows that the P（θr） distributions,P（φ r） distributions,and polarization-dependent differential cross sections（PDDCSs）（00） are sensitive to mass factor and the product angular momentum vectors are not only aligned but also oriented.

A New Regression Type Estimator and Its Application in Survey Sampling

In the present time, a large number of modified estimators have been proposed by authors to obtain efficiency. In this study, we suggested an alternative regression type estimator for estimating finite population means when there is either a positive or negative correlation between study variables and auxiliary variables. We obtained bias and mean square error equation of the proposed estimator ignoring the first-order approximation and found the theoretical conditions that make proposed estimator more efficient than simple random sampling mean estimator, product estimator and ratio estimator. In addition, these conditions are supported by a numerical example and it has been concluded that the proposed estimator performed better comparing with the usual simple random sampling mean estimator, ratio estimator and product estimator.

Product/metal ratio (PMR):A novel criterion for the evaluation of electrolytes on micro-arc oxidation (MAO) of Mg and its alloys

Product/metal ratio (PMR) was introduced as a novel criterion for the evaluation of electrolytes on micro-arc oxidation (MAO) of Mg and its alloys. The criterion initially sprang from Pilling-Bedworth ratio (PBR), focused on the roles of electrolytes for the compactness of the fabricated coatings, and took attention on properties of reactants/products during MAO. Meanwhile, based on our experiments as well as the results from literatures, the effects of electrolyte additives on morphologies and com-positions of the fabricated MAO coatings of Mg alloys were exploited for verification and supplement of the initial criterion. In combination of the initial PMR criterion and experimental verification, PMR could be represented by special mode (PMRs=Voxide products/Valloy substrates) and general mode (PMRg= PMRs+ PMRd). The ideal PMRs should be between 1 and 2, while PMRd is related to the coating deposition during MAO. PMRd is a supplement to PMRs when the effect of the overlaying prop-erty (O) of the coatings and the effective deposition (D) of electrolyte composites are considered (PMRd=f(O, D). O is related to the melting point (MP) and boiling point (BP) of the MAO products. D is related to the effective reactions between alloy substrates and electrolytes during MAO.

Impact of food to microorganism ratio and alcohol ethoxylate dosage on methane production in treatment of low-strength wastewater by a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor

The effects of food to microorganism （FIM） ratio and alcohol ethoxylate （AE） dosage on the methane production potential were investigated in treatment of low-strength wastewater by a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor （SAnMBR）. The fate of AE and its acute and/or chronic impact on the anaerobic microbes were also analyzed. The results indicated that AE had an inhibitory effect to methane production potential （lag-time depends on the AE dosage） and the negative effect attenuated subsequently and methane production could recover at FIM ratio of 0.088-0.357. VFA measurement proved that AE was degraded into small molecular organic acids and then converted into methane at lower FIM ratio （FIM 〈 0.158）. After long-term acclimation, anaerobic microbe could cope with the stress of AE by producing more EPS （extracellular polymeric substances） and SMP （soluble microbial products） due to its self-protection behavior and then enhance its tolerance ability. However, the methane production potential was considerably decreased when AE was present in wastewater at a higher FIM ratio of 1.054. Higher AE amount and FIM ratio may destroy the cell structure of microbe, which lead to the decrease of methane production activity of sludge and methane production potential.

A synchronous nucleation and passivation strategy for controllable synthesis of Au36(PA)24: unveiling the formation process and the role of Au22(PA)18 intermediate

Despite the recent progress on controllable synthesis of alkynyl-protected Au nanoclusters,the effective synthetic means are very limited and the cluster formation process still remains puzzling.Here,we develop a novel synchronous nucleation and passivation strategy to fabricate Au36(PA)24(PA=phenylacetylenyl) nanoclusters with high yield.In Au36(PA)24formation process,Au22(PA)18as key intermediate was identified.Meanwhile,Au22(PA)18can be synthesized under a low amount of reductant,and by employing more reductants,Au22(PA)18can turn into Au36(PA)24eventually.Moreover,the structure evolution from Au22(PA)18to Au36(PA)24is proposed,where four Au13cuboctahedra can yield one Au28kernel.Finally,the ratiocination is verified by the good accordance between the predicted intermediate/product ratio and the experimental value.This study not only offers a novel synthetic strategy,but also sheds light on understanding the structural evolution process of alkynyl-protected Au nanoclusters at atomic level.

Quantitative prediction of substituted products based on quantum-chemical parameters and neural network method

The criterion of orientating group of electrophilic aromatic nitration was discussed by means of pattern recognition method with quantum-chemical parameters as features, and the product ratios of the reactions were quantitatively calculated using artificial neural network (ANN) method with the same parameters as inputs, based on the ab initio calculation of quantum chemistry, The quantum-chemical parameters involved orbital energy, orbital electron population, atomic total electron density and atomic net charge. The predicted values are in agreement with experimental results and the predicted error of the ANN with quantum-chemical parameters for the reaction is the smallest among the all methods.