Developmental Application of Roof Greening against the Background of “Sponge City”: A Case Study of Ningbo City

In view of the problems of architectural eco-civilization in Ningbo City against the background of "sponge city", this paper proposed that development of roof greening in the city met the development concepts of sponge city, summarized six basic countermeasures and four cooperation mechanisms for the developmental application of roof greening in Ningbo City by analyzing practical experience of roof greening construction in foreign countries.

Operation and Maintenance Challenges in China“Sponge City”Program

China started a Sponge City program to offset the adverse impacts of urban developments and to tackle many water-related problems.By emphasizing stormwater management practices with“natural solutions”,many positive results have been achieved.The operation and maintenance(O&M)of Sponge City to support long-term success gained considerable focus.China is facing challenges many developed countries have encountered,as well as unique ones due to specific social,economic,and environmental conditions.This study identified and discussed Sponge City O&M challenges:(1)scheduling challenges,(2)technical challenges,(3)in short of local regulation/ordnance,(4)inadequate O&M assessment standard,(5)underprovided training,(6)PPP related concerns,(7)inter-agency coordination needs,(8)ownership and responsible party issues,(9)substandard documentation,and(10)funding and financial concerns.Selected cases and progress in pilot cities are introduced in the discussions.

Characterization of Flame Retardancy and Oil-Water Separation Capacity of Superhydrophobic Silylated Melamine Sponges

A silylated melamine sponge(SMS)was prepared by two simple steps,namely,immersion and dehydration of a melamine sponge coated with methyltrichlorosilane.The silylated structure of SMS was characterized by FT-IR(Fourier-transform infrared)spectroscopy,SEM(Scanning electron microscopy)and in terms of water contact angles.Its oil-water absorption and separation capacities were measured by FT-IR and UV-visible spectrophoto-metry.The experimental results have shown that oligomeric silanol covalently bonds by Si-N onto the surface of melamine sponge skeletons.SMS has shown superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle exceeding 150°±1°,a better separation efficiency with regard to diesel oil(by 99.31%(wt/wt%)in oil-water mixture and even up to 99.99%(wt/wt%)for diesel oil in its saturated aqueous solution.Moreover,SMS inherited the intrinsicflame retardancy of the melamine sponge.In general,SMS has shown superhydrophobicity,high porosity,excellent selectivity,remarkable recyclability,and better absorption capacity for various oils and organic solvents,and a high separation efficiency for oil in saturated aqueous solutions.

Role of exosomal circular RNAs as microRNA sponges and potential targeting for suppressing hepatocellular carcinoma growth and progression

In this editorial,we comment on the article by Lyu et al published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology(2023;2219-2840).Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is a frequently encountered and highly aggressive primary liver cancer,which remains the third-commonest cause of cancer-related death despite the current therapeutic modalities.There is urgency in developing novel thera-peutic approaches,such as by manipulating extracellular vesicles,which con-stitute a highly heterogeneous nanoparticle population that contains various cargoes.These cargoes have a pivotal role in cell-to-cell communication and can modify the functional level of the recipient cells via their uptake by other recipient cells.Exosomal non-coding RNAs have particular evolving significance in HCC,such as circular RNAs,which have been found differentially expressed in normal hepatic and HCC tissues.The aberrations in their expression levels have a key role in the HCC development and progression and the overall prognosis.In this editorial,we will shed light on the emerging role of exosomal circular RNAs in HCC development and progression,focusing on the oncogenic or potentially tumor suppressive effect of mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomal non-coding RNAs.

Waterfront Spatial Design from the Perspective of Sponge City

Due to environmental awareness, demand for watercourse landscape eco- function is growing domestically. However, flood control and drainage are the only focuses, and the rest functions of water course are slighted. Besides, cross-section biodiversity is falling and wetland self-cleaning capacity is impairing, resulting from river limitation on riverbed, making a straight river bend and revetment. So, water course has to be managed from ecology, economy, culture and social effect, to re- store natural river function and meet human demands. And to return to nature and people first would be the general principles.

Assessment of Climate Technology Demands in Chinese Sponge City

Sponge city is a development pattern used to realize natural accumulation, natural infiltration and natural purification of rainwater through urban planning and construction management. Sponge city technology is widely used as the critical approaches in natural rainwater management and it is one of the best techniques to adapt climate change events in modern cities. In the paper, we firstly reviewed background information of sponge city construction and the development, key technologies, and economic benefit analysis of stormwater management in foreign countries. Then, we analyzed the technology gap between China and developed countries in two aspects (planning design method and Low Impact Development (LID) project design). Then, we pointed out the main obstacles in sponge city technology transfer and proposed to improve the basic data sharing system and strengthen the economic return system. On the basis of sponge city planning theory and sponge city technologies, taking Shenzhen as an example, we analyzed the ideas and plans of sponge city construction in rainy areas and completed the assessment of current climate technology demands in Chinese sponge city. The study provides the basis for the improvements in sponge city construction and adaptation to climate change.

Green Infrastructure Practice and a Sustainability Key Performance Indicators Framework for Neighbourhood-Level Construction of Sponge City Programme

In recent years, the Sponge City program (SCP) of China, as a sustainable stormwater management approach, has been strengthened as a national strategic level program. The Green Infrastructure (GI), due to its multi-objective and multi-benefits, has been adopted as an important measure of this new nationwide initiative. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive quantitative evaluation system for neighbourhood scale SCP. Hence, in the process of GI plan optimization, selection of implementation methods to balance its multi-benefits has become one of the key obstacles in the practice of SCP. To support robust decision making on multi-objective GI planning and comprehensive assessment, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been used as a structural and systematic technique. In addition, a set of sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) including requisite dimensions is the foundation for neighbourhood scale sustainability. Hence, AHP-based evaluation system including selection, weighting and ranking of the KPIs, is defined as a key performance indicator framework (KPIF), which is still in need for further development. Taking the GI planning for the Liangnong, Siming Lake sponge node restoration as an example, this paper develops KPIF with a comprehensive evaluation system for high-quality “Sponge Node” transitional construction. This KPIF consists of three basic criteria: “Environmental Performance”, “Economic and Adaptability Performance”, and “Social-cultural Performance and Wellbeing Performance”. In addition, 15 weighted KPIs are concluded and amongst them, the followings were relatively high: weight of the ATRCR, the promotion of biodiversity, the construction cost saving, the maintenance cost saving, and the level of recreational and wellbeing improvements for all people. In addition, the developed KPIF provides a reference for similar program’s decision-making, not only for the Jiangnan area of China, but also for quantitatively comprehensive evaluations of SCP in other regions.

Design and achievement of cloud geodatabase for a sponge city

Building a cloud geodatabase for a sponge city is crucial to integrate the geospatial information dispersed in various departments for multi-user high concurrent access and retrieval,high scalability and availability,efficient storage and management.In this study,Hadoop distributed computing framework,including Hadoop distributed file system and MapReduce(mapper and reducer),is firstly designed with a parallel computing framework to process massive spatial data.Then,access control with a series of standard application programming interfaces for different functions is designed,including spatial data storage layer,cloud geodatabase access layer,spatial data access layer and spatial data analysis layer.Subsequently,a retrieval model is designed,including direct addressing via file name,three-level concurrent retrieval and block data retrieval strategies.Main functions are realised,including real-time concurrent access,high-performance computing,communication,massive data storage,efficient retrieval and scheduling decisions on the multi-scale,multi-source and massive spatial data.Finally,the performance of Hadoop cloud geodatabases is validated and compared with that of the Oracle database.The cloud geodatabase for the sponge city can avoid redundant configuration of personnel,hardware and software,support the data transfer,model debugging and application development,and provide accurate,real-time,virtual,intelligent,reliable,elastically scalable,dynamic and on-demand cloud services of the basic and thematic geographic information for the construction and management of the sponge city.

The Enlightenment on Urban Ecological Construction by Research Progress of Sponge City in China Based on Literature Analysis

To quantitatively analyze main figure,field,agency and level of sponge city research in China,and clear research focus and hot spot in each year,by using the Full Text Database of Chinese Sci-tech Periodicals and other retrieval tools,the statistics and analysis of 3152 research literatures on sponge city published in domestic academic journals of 2004-2016 are conducted based on bibliometrics. It is found that since the concept of " sponge city" was firstly proposed in 2012,development research of sponge city involves 40 subject fields and is mainly published in 32 kinds of journals,which is dominated by natural science research( 1427 literatures). Researchers are mainly from each college and university,some design institutes and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research could play certain guidance significance for further research and construction of ecological city construction in China.

Newly Design Porous/Sponge Red Phosphorus@Graphene and Highly Conductive Ni2P Electrode for Asymmetric Solid State Supercapacitive Device With Excellent Performance

Supercapacitors have attracted much attention in the field of electrochemical energy storage.However,material preparation,stability,performance as well as power density limit their applications in many fields.Herein,a sponge-like red phosphorus@graphene(rP@rGO)negative electrode and a Ni2P positive electrode were prepared using a simple one-step method.Both electrodes showed excellent performances(294 F g^−1 and 1526.6 F g^−1 for rP@rGO and Ni2P,respectively),which seem to be the highest among all rP@rGO-and Ni2P-based electrodes reported so far.The asymmetric solid-state supercapacitor was assembled by sandwiching a gel electrolyte-soaked cellulose paper between rP@rGO and Ni2P as the negative and positive electrodes.Compared to other asymmetric devices,the device,which attained a high operating window of up to 1.6 V,showed high energy and power density values of 41.66 and 1200 W kg−1,respectively.It also has an excellent cyclic stability up to 88%after various consecutive charge/discharge tests.Additionally,the device could power commercial light emitting diodes and fans for 30 s.So,the ease of the synthesis method and excellent performance of the prepared electrode materials mat have significant potential for energy storage applications.

Landscape Design of Green Roofs Against the Background of Sponge City Construction: A Case Study of the California Academy of Sciences

In this paper, the green roof of the California Academy of Sciences was selected for example to illustrate the role of green roofs in sustainable urban planning from three aspects: landscape connection, building energy conservation and urban environment and elaborate the innovative design elements of the California Academy of Sciences, and the enlightenment of green roofs on the construction of sponge cities in China and the guiding role for future urban design were analyzed combined with the current urban problems in China and the research status of green roofs at home and abroad.

Thoughts and Strategies of Sponge City Construction Planning: A Case Study of Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province

At present and for a long time in the future, urbanization in China will maintain a rapid development speed. After the rainstorm, the phenomenon of “sea views” is common. The direct reason is that the urban drainage system and the ground drainage system cannot afford the large flow of water in a short period of time, but the most fundamental reason is that the artificial construction environment changes the water storage and drainage function of the ground under the natural state. “Sponge city construction” came into being. This paper mainly analyzes and studies the sponge city construction in Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, and uses the method of field investigation and literature data to clarify the ideas of the sponge city construction in Pingxiang City and summarize the successful experience, which can provide a reference for the subsequent “sponge city development” ideas.

Urban Design Strategy Research Based on the Concept of Sponge City: A Case Study of Renbei District in Chengdu

Cities are currently confronted with many urban problems, such as water shortages, water quality pollution, floods, and the loss of habitats of aquatic organisms, and badly in need of a more comprehensive solution. In this context, the concept of "sponge city" is proposed. This paper, based on the theory of sponge city and low impact development, elaborated the origin, development, connotation, and construction method of "sponge city" concept. In this paper, the urban design scheme of Renbei District in Chengdu was taken for example to analyze the geographical environment and climate characteristics of Chengdu and explain the formation and verification of the scheme. It is considered that the "sponge city" is different from the traditional urban infrastructure. It is essentially an ecological approach. Its core is to build a cross-scale urban water ecological infrastructure to comprehensively solve the prominent water-related problems of urban and rural areas in China.

Retraction:long noncoding RNA ANRIL promotes cervical cancer development by acting as a sponge of miR-186

Following the publication,concerns have been raised about a number of figures in this article.An unexpected area of similarity was identified in terms of the cellular data,where the results from differently performed experiments were intended to have been shown,although the areas immediately surrounding this area featured comparatively different distributions of cells.

Performance improvement in stepped solar still modified by sponge layer

In this paper,the experimental investigation on the performance improvement of conventional stepped solar still is conducted.The steps are covered by the porous material to improve the performance of the conventional device and increase the evaporation rate.All the parameters,including the temperature on the glass surface,the water temperature inside the evaporation zone,and the amount of water produced in both conventional and modified stepped solar stills are measured and compared.The efficiency of two devices and their exergy efficiency have been calculated.Finally,the economic analysis of both devices has been done to check the economic feasibility of the modified device.The amount of freshwater generated during one day was 2244.4 and 3076.2 mL/m^(2),respectively for the conventional and modified stepped solar stills.As a result,the amount of water produced in one day by modified stepped solar still is 35.5% more than the conventional one.Also,the costs for the conventional and modified stepped solar stills have been calculated as 0.0359 and 0.029$/(L·m^(-2)),respectively.

A green cross-linking method for the preparation of renewable threedimensional graphene sponges for efficient adsorption of Congo red dye

Graphene-based materials possess significant potential for the treatment of dye wastewater due to their exceptional adsorption properties toward stubborn pollutants.However,their utilization is hindered by high preparation costs,low yields,environmental pollution during synthesis,and challenges in regenerating the adsorbent.This study proposes a novel approach to address these limitations by developing nitrogen-doped three-dimensional(3D)polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)crosslinked graphene sponges(N-PGA)using a cross-linking method with ammonium carbonate.This method offers a relatively mild,environmentally friendly approach.Ammonium carbonate serves as both a reducing and modifying agent,facilitating the formation of the intrinsic structure of N-PGA and acting as a nitrogen source.Meanwhile,PVA is utilized as the cross-linking agent.The results demonstrate that N-PGA exhibits a favorable internal 3D hierarchical porous structure and possesses robust mechanical properties.The measured specific surface area(BET)of N-PGA was as high as406.538 m^(2)·g^(-1),which was favorable for its efficient adsorption of Congo red(CR)dye molecules.At an initial concentration of 50 mg·L^(-1),N-PGA achieved an impressive removal rate of 89.6%and an adsorption capacity of 112 mg·g^(-1)for CR dye.Furthermore,it retained 79%of its initial adsorption capacity after 10 cycles,demonstrating excellent regeneration performance.In summary,the synthesized N-PGA displays remarkable efficacy in the adsorption of CR dye in wastewater,opening up new possibilities for utilizing 3D porous graphene nanomaterials as efficient adsorbents in wastewater treatment.

Efficient removal of U(VI) from wastewater by a sponge-like 3D porous architecture with hybrid electrospun nanofibers

Removal of uranium(VI)from nuclear wastewater is urgent due to the global nuclear energy exploitation.This study synthesized novel sponge-like 3D porous materials for enhanced uranium adsorption by combining electrospinning and fibrous freeze-shaping techniques.The materials possessed an organic-inorganic hybrid architecture based on the electrospun fibers of polyacrylonitrile(PAN)and SiO_(2).As a sup-porting material,the surface of fibrous SiO_(2) could be further functionalized by cyano groups via(3-cyanopropyl)triethoxysilane.All the cyano groups were turned into amidoxime(AO)groups to obtain a amidoxime-functionalized sponge(PAO/SiO_(2)-AO)through the subsequent ami-doximation process.The proposed sponge exhibited enhanced uranium adsorption performance with a high removal capacity of 367.12 mg/g,a large adsorption coefficient of 4.0×10^(4)mL/g,and a high removal efficiency of 97.59%.The UO_(2)^(2+)adsorption kinetics perfectly conformed to the pseudo-second-order reaction.The sorbent also exhibited an excellent selectivity for UO_(2)^(2+) with other interfering metal ions.2023 Hohai University.Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

LncRNAs unraveling their sponge role in glioblastoma and potential therapeutic applications

Glioblastoma multiforme(GBM),the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor in adults,is the most malignant and still has no cure.However,the novel role of long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)in the pathogenesis of glioblastoma is attracting extensive attention.LncRNAs are transcribed RNA molecules over 200 nucleotides long that do not encode proteins.Unlike small non-coding RNAs,such as microRNAs(miRNAs),lncRNAs have more complex secondary and tertiary structures that enable them to interact with DNA,RNA,and proteins and perform multiple regulatory functions.LncRNAs act as molecular sponges,absorbing and sequestering other biomolecules,particularly miRNAs,thereby preventing these molecules from performing their normal functions.LncRNAs influence glioblastoma through gene expression regulation,molecular sponge capacity,epigenetic modulation,and signaling pathway interactions.In glioblastoma,a large number of lncRNAs have been found to be abnormally expressed,affecting tumor growth,invasion and resistance to treatment.Due to its regulatory role and disease-specific expression patterns,lncRNA has become a potential biomarker for glioblastoma and a promising new therapeutic target.This paper discusses the spongy role of lncRNAs in glioblastoma and its potential therapeutic applications,which will lay a foundation for our understanding of glioblastoma biology and the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the future.

Physical property improvement of fluid shortening using peanut oil-based diacylglycerols and their applications in sponge cake

Fluid shortening is an important ingredient in the production of sponge cake. Peanut oil with 0, 43% and 85% of diacylglycerol content was used as the base oil. Different emulsifiers, such as glycerol monostearate, soy lecithin and sucrose ester, and their respective amounts, were investigated. It was found that the addition of emulsifiers had a positive effect on water-absorbing capacity, air-absorbing capacity and viscosity of the oils. Glycerol monostearate was the preferred emulsifier for fluid shortening with a recommended addition of 1.5%. The effects of different diacylglycerol content on fluid shortening and their impact on sponge cake production was also investigated. The onset oxidation temperature of the oil could be increased from 253.21 ℃ for PO-TAG-based fluid shortening to 263.70 ℃ for PO-DAG85-based fluid shortening. And the increase in diacylglycerol content leading to a lower specific gravity of the batter, which was 1.06 g/mL, 1.02 g/mL and 0.98 g/mL prepared by PO-DAG, PO-DAG43 and PO-DAG85 shortening, respectively. The results showed that diacylglycerols can be used as base oils in fluid shortening to improve the crystal network and stability of fluid shortenings, thereby reducing the specific gravity of the batter and improving the structural properties of the cake. This will extend the potential applications of diacylglycerols and increase the variety of base oils available for fluid shortening preparation.

Superhydrophobic melamine sponge prepared by radiation-induced grafting technology for efficient oil-water separation

This paper presents a superhydrophobic melamine(ME)sponge(ME-g-PLMA)prepared via high-energy radiation-induced in situ covalent grafting of long-alkyl-chain dodecyl methacrylate(LMA)onto an ME sponge for efficient oil–water separation.The obtained ME-g-PLMA sponge had an excellent pore structure with superhydrophobic(water contact angle of 154°)and superoleophilic properties.It can absorb various types of oils up to 66–168 times its mass.The ME-g-PLMA sponge can continuously separate oil slicks in water by connecting a pump or separating oil underwater with a gravity-driven device.In addition,it maintained its highly hydrophobic properties even after long-term immersion in different corrosive solutions and repeated oil adsorption.The modified ME-g-PLMA sponge exhibited excellent separation properties and potential for oil spill cleanup.