Thermal regimes and degradation modes of permafrost along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway

Permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is widespread, thin, and thermally unstable. Under a warming climate during the past few decades, it has been degrading extensively with generally rising ground temperatures, the deepening of the maximum summer thaw, and with lessening of the winter frost penetration. The permafrost has degraded downward, upward and laterally. Permafrost has thinned or, in some areas, has totally disappeared. The modes of permafrost degradation have great significance in geocryology, in cold regions engineering and in cold regions environmental management. Permafrost in the interior of the QTP is well represented along the Qing-hai-Tibet Highway (QTH), which crosses the Plateau through north to south and traverses 560 km of permafrost-impacted ground. Horizontally, the degradation of permafrost occurs more visibly in the sporadic permafrost zone in the vicinity of the lower limit of permafrost (LLP), along the margins of taliks, and around permafrost islands. Downward degradation develops when the maximum depth of seasonal thaw exceeds the maximum depth of seasonal frost, and it generally results in the formation of a layered talik disconnecting the permafrost from the seasonal frost layer. The downward degrada- tion is divided into four stages: 1) initial degradation, 2) accelerated degradation, 3) layered talik and 4) finally the conversion of permafrost to seasonally frozen ground (SFG). The upward degradation occurs when the geothermal gradient in permafrost drops to less than the geothermal gradients in the underlying thawed soil layers. Three types of permafrost temperature curves (stable, degrading, and phase-changing transitory permafrost) illustrate these modes. Although strong differentiations in local conditions and permafrost types exist, the various combinations of the three degradation modes will ultimately transform permafrost into SFG. Along the QTH, the downward degradation has been proceeding at annual rates of 6 to 25 cm, upward degradation at 12 to 30 cm, and lateral degradation in the sporadic permafrost zone at 62 to 94 cm during the last quarter century. These rates exceed the 4 cm per year for the past 20 years reported for the discontinuous permafrost zone in subarctic Alaska, the 3 to 7 cm per year reported in Mongolia, and that of the thaw-stable permafrost in subarctic Yakutia and Arctic Alaska.

锂离子电池加速老化:连接电池老化机制分析与寿命预测的桥梁

储能行业和新能源汽车的爆发式增长要求对锂离子电池的老化行为尤其是电池的寿命行为有更加深入的了解.准确地预测电池在各种工作条件下的使用寿命有助于优化电池的实际运行条件和延长电池的使用寿命,最终达到降低电池生命周期内总成本的目的.加速老化是一种经济高效的产品寿命评价方法,可以在短时间内获得大量的电池老化信息,快速预测锂离子电池在各种工作应力下的寿命特征.然而,基于加速老化进行电池寿命预测的前提是电池老化机理的一致性.本文综述了锂离子电池内各部件的老化机理和应力加速条件下的电池衰退机制以及相应的老化模式,为评价电池老化机理的一致性提供了参考.此外,本文还介绍了一些基于加速老化的电池寿命经验预测模型并为今后锂离子电池的加速老化研究提供了一些建议.

Expanding the application range of theκ‑carrageenase OUC‑FaKC16A when preparing oligosaccharides fromκ‑carrageenan and furcellaran

Carrageenan oligosaccharides are important products that have demonstrated numerous bioactivities useful in the food,medicine,and cosmetics industries.However,the specifc structure–function relationships of carrageenan oligosaccharides are not clearly described due to the defciency of high specifc carrageenases.Here,a truncated mutant OUC-FaKC16Q based on the reportedκ-neocarratetrose(Nκ4)-producingκ-carrageenase OUC-FaKC16A from Flavobacterium algicola was constructed and further studied.After truncating the C-terminal Por_Secre_tail(PorS)domain(responsible for substrate binding),the catalytic efciency and temperature stability decreased to a certain extent.Surprisingly,this truncation also enabled OUC-FaKC16Q to hydrolyze Nκ4 intoκ-neocarrabiose(Nκ2).The ofset of Arg265 residue in OUC-FaKC16Q may explain this change.Moreover,the high catalytic abilities,the main products,and the degradation modes of OUC-FaKC16A and OUC-FaKC16Q toward furcellaran were also demonstrated.Data suggested OUC-FaKC16A and OUC-FaKC16Q could hydrolyze furcellaran to produce mainly the desulfated oligosaccharides DA-G-(DA-G4S)2 and DA-G-DA-G4S,respectively.As a result,the spectrum of products ofκ-carrageenase OUC-FaKC16A has been fully expanded in this study,indicating its promising potential for application in the biomanufacturing of carrageenan oligosaccharides with specifc structures.

Decontamination of alachlor herbicide wastewater by a continuous dosing mode ultrasound/Fe^(2+)/H_2O_2 process

We used a ultrasound/Fe2＋/H2O2 process in continuous dosing mode to degrade the alachlor. Experimental results indicated that lower pH levels enhanced the degradation and mineralization of alachlor. The maximum alachlor degradation （initial alachlor concentration of 50 mg/L） was as high as 100% at pH 3 with ultrasound of 100 Watts, 20 mg/L of Fe2＋, 2 mg/min of H2O2 and 20℃ within 60 min reaction combined with 46.8% total organic carbon removal. Higher reaction temperatures inhibited the degradation of alachlor. Adequate dosages of Fe2＋ and H2O2 in ultrasound/Fe2＋/H2O2 process not only enhance the degradation efficiency of alachlor but also save the operational cost than the sole ultrasound or Fenton process. A continuous dosing mode ultrasound/Fe2＋/H2O2 process was proven as an effective method to degrade the alachlor.

Static and dynamic mode evolution in high-power distributed side-coupled cladding-pumped fiber amplifiers

We present a theoretical study of mode evolution in high-power distributed side-coupled cladding-pumped(DSCCP)fiber amplifiers.A semi-analytical model taking the side-pumping schemes,transverse mode competition,and stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering into consideration has been built,which can model the static and dynamic mode evolution in high-power DSCCP fiber amplifiers.The mode evolution behavior has been investigated with variation of the fiber amplifier parameters,such as the pump power distribution,the length of the DSCCP fiber,the averaged coupling coefficient,the number of the pump cores and the arrangement of the pump cores.Interestingly,it revealed that static mode evolution induced by transverse mode competition is different from the dynamic evolution induced by stimulated thermal Rayleigh scattering.This shows that the high-order mode experiences a slightly higher gain in DSCCP fiber amplifiers,but the mode instability thresholds for DSCCP fiber amplifiers are higher than those for their end-coupled counterparts.By increasing the pump core number and reducing the averaged coupling coefficient,the mode instability threshold can be increased,which indicates that DSCCP fibers can provide additional mitigation strategies of dynamic mode instability.