A roadmap for China to peak carbon dioxide emissions and achieve a 20% share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy by 2030

As part of its Paris Agreement commitment, China pledged to peak carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions around 2030, striving to peak earlier, and to increase the non-fossil share of primary energy to 20% by 2030. Yet by the end of 2017, China emitted 28% of the world's energy-related CO2 emissions, 76% of which were from coal use. How China can reinvent its energy economy cost-effectively while still achieving its commitments was the focus of a three-year joint research project completed in September 2016. Overall, this analysis found that if China follows a pathway in which it aggressively adopts all cost-effective energy efficiency and CO2 emission reduction technologies while also aggressively moving away from fossil fuels to renewable and other non-fossil resources, it is possible to not only meet its Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commitments, but also to reduce its 2050 CO2 emissions to a level that is 42% below the country's 2010 CO2 emissions. While numerous barriers exist that will need to be addressed through effective policies and programs in order to realize these potential energy use and emissions reductions, there are also significant local environmental (e.g., air quality), national and global environmental (e.g., mitigation of climate change), human health, and other unquantified benefits that will be realized if this pathway is pursued in China

THE EFFECTS OF TEUCRIUM POLIUM L. ON ATHEROSCLEROTIC PLAQUES IN HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIC IN RATS

Cardiovascular diseases are amongst the most important mortality causes worldwide. Therefore, it is necessary to offer a drug that meanwhile lacking the side effects of the similar chemical medications is capable of reducing the risk factors of such diseases. In the present study, the effect of hydroalcoholic extract taken from the plant Teucrium Polium on the atherosclerotic plaques has been studied herein. In the current research paper, 20 male Wistar rats with mean weights ranging from 150 g to 180 g were randomly divided to four groups: a control group and a sham group that, respectively, received ordinary dietary regimen and high cholesterol (2) nutrition. Experimental groups 1 and 2 that received ordinary dietary regimens plus Teucrium Polium extracts, with dosages equal to 0.85 mg/ml and 1.7 mg/ml, respectively, on a daily basis. After eight weeks of treatment, the rats' aortas were dissected and kept in 10 formalin solution to undergo histological evaluations. The weight results were analyzed in SPSS software by the use of one-way variance analysis (ANOVA). There was not observed any atherogenic lesion in the control group that had received a normal nutrition. In sham group that had received high cholesterol dietary regimen, atheroma plaques were visible. Experimental groups 1&2 that had been treated with extract dosages of 0.85 mg/ml and 1.7 mg/ml, no sign of any atherogenic lesion and plaque formation was observed even with their being fed on a high cholesterol dietary regime. Also, the sham group members' mean weights showed a significant increase in respect to the control group. Experimental group two demonstrated a significant reduction of weight in contrast to the control group. The hydroalcoholic extract of Teucrium Polium was interestingly successful in preventing the atherosclerotic plaques. According to the side effects of the anti-atherosclerotic chemical medications, it seems that the use of traditional medicine and the medicinal herbs can be an appropriate solution to the reduction of cardiovascular diseases

Electrified Process Heating in Textile Wet-Processing Industry: A Techno-Economic Analysis for China, Japan, and Taiwan

The textile industry accounts for approximately 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. There is a significant opportunity to decarbonize the textile industry by electrification of process heating where low- or zero-carbon electricity is used. Electrified process heating can be achieved through cross-cutting technologies without modifying the textile process equipment and/or through replacing the existing equipment with technologies that employ electromagnetic or resistance heating techniques for specific end-use applications. This paper aims to investigate the potential for electrification of process heating in the textile wet-processing industry in three of the top textile-producing and exporting regions in the world. To do this, two separate technology pathways, i.e., electrification through (a) industrial heat pumps and (b) textile end-use processes are developed and analyzed. The results show that the total potential final energy and CO2 savings due to electrification in both scenarios could be substantially large due to the lower energy intensity of the electrified heating systems. Moreover, the costs per unit of textile production are found to be lower in the case of industrial heat pumps compared to other systems. It is concluded that wide-scale electrification of process heating in the textile wet-processing industry will require major changes to the electricity system and individual sites, and the coordination efforts among different stakeholders to plan these changes must be intensified

Filamentation instability of a laser beam in an inhomogeneous plasma in an arbitrarily oriented external magnetic field

AbstractThe interaction of a short pulse laser beam with an inhomogeneous plasma has been studied in the presence of an obliquely applied external magnetic field. The dispersion relation and the analytical growth rate have been obtained solving the nonlinear wave equation. It is found that the growth rate and the cut-off wavenumber are strongly influenced by the direction and magnitude of the applied magnetic field. Moreover, the growth rate has been modified by plasma inhomogeneity.</jats:p