Natural Hydrogels Applied in Photodynamic Therapy

Natural hydrogels are three-dimensional (3D) water-retaining materials with a skeleton consisting of natural polymers, their derivatives or mixtures. Natural hydrogels can provide sustained or controlled drug release and possess some unique properties of natural polymers, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and some additional functions, such as CD44 targeting of hyaluronic acid. Natural hydrogels can be used with photosensitizers (PSs) in photodynamic therapy (PDT) to increase the range of applications. In the current review, the pertinent design variables are discussed along with a description of the categories of natural hydrogels available for PDT. </jats:sec

Electrochemical treatment of norfloxacin with Mn/carbon black-nickel foam electrodes

Electrochemical degradation is a promising method for removing organic pollutants from water due to its low carbon footprint and high efficiency. In this study, we prepared Mn/carbon black-nickel foam electrodes using a co-precipitation method and characterized them using FESEM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We investigated the effects of applied voltage, plate spacing, electrolyte concentration, and initial norfloxacin concentration on the degradation of organic pollutants. The results indicated that Mn/carbon black-nickel foam electrodes exhibited excellent performance in promoting the generation of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) and enhancing the electro-Fenton effect. At optimal conditions, including an applied voltage of 6 V, plate spacing of 15 mm, electrolyte concentration of 20 mmol/L, and initial norfloxacin concentration of 10 mg/L, the norfloxacin removal percentage reached 83.9%. Additionally, the total organic carbon (TOC) removal percentage was 69.2%, and the energy consumption was 9.6 kW·h/m3. Furthermore, when compared to titanium ruthenium-nickel foam electrodes under the same conditions, the Mn/carbon black-nickel foam electrode exhibited a 15.8% increase in norfloxacin removal rate, a reduction of 0.6 kW·h/m3 in energy consumption, improved current efficiency, and significantly accelerated reaction rates. Overall, this study demonstrates the excellent catalytic effect of the Mn/carbon black-nickel foam electrode on the degradation of antibiotic pollutants

Recommendations for Construction and Management of Ecological Public Welfare Forest in Hainan Province

This paper firstly evaluated ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province. Then, it introduced value structure and existing problems of ecological service functions. Focusing on optimization and adjustment of scale and distribution of ecological public welfare forest, it came up with recommendations for construction and management of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province

In Situ Formation of Surface-Induced Oxygen Vacancies in Co9S8/CoO/NC as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Improved Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

Creating oxygen vacancies and introducing heterostructures are two widely used strategies in Co-based oxides for their efficient electrocatalytic performance, yet both strategies have rarely been used together to design a bifunctional electrocatalyst for an efficient overall water splitting. Herein, we propose a facile strategy to synthesize oxygen-defect-rich Co9S8/CoO hetero-nanoparticles with a nitrogen-doped carbon shell (ODR-Co9S8/CoO/NC) through the in situ conversion of heterojunction along with surface-induced oxygen vacancies, simply via annealing the precursor Co3S4/Co(OH)2/ZIF-67. The as-prepared ODR-Co9S8/CoO/NC shows excellent bifunctional catalytic activities, featuring a low overpotential of 217 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and 160 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This performance excellency is attributed to unique heterostructure and oxygen defects in Co9S8/CoO nanoparticles, the current work is expected to offer new insights to the design of cost-effective, noble-metal-free electrocatalysts

In Situ Formation of Surface-Induced Oxygen Vacancies in Co9S8/CoO/NC as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Improved Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

Creating oxygen vacancies and introducing heterostructures are two widely used strategies in Co-based oxides for their efficient electrocatalytic performance, yet both strategies have rarely been used together to design a bifunctional electrocatalyst for an efficient overall water splitting. Herein, we propose a facile strategy to synthesize oxygen-defect-rich Co9S8/CoO hetero-nanoparticles with a nitrogen-doped carbon shell (ODR-Co9S8/CoO/NC) through the in situ conversion of heterojunction along with surface-induced oxygen vacancies, simply via annealing the precursor Co3S4/Co(OH)2/ZIF-67. The as-prepared ODR-Co9S8/CoO/NC shows excellent bifunctional catalytic activities, featuring a low overpotential of 217 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and 160 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This performance excellency is attributed to unique heterostructure and oxygen defects in Co9S8/CoO nanoparticles, the current work is expected to offer new insights to the design of cost-effective, noble-metal-free electrocatalysts. </jats:p

Tree Biomass Allocation and Its Model Additivity for Casuarina equisetifolia in a Tropical Forest of Hainan Island, China.

Casuarina equisetifolia is commonly planted and used in the construction of coastal shelterbelt protection in Hainan Island. Thus, it is critical to accurately estimate the tree biomass of Casuarina equisetifolia L. for forest managers to evaluate the biomass stock in Hainan. The data for this work consisted of 72 trees, which were divided into three age groups: young forest, middle-aged forest, and mature forest. The proportion of biomass from the trunk significantly increased with age (P<0.05). However, the biomass of the branch and leaf decreased, and the biomass of the root did not change. To test whether the crown radius (CR) can improve biomass estimates of C. equisetifolia, we introduced CR into the biomass models. Here, six models were used to estimate the biomass of each component, including the trunk, the branch, the leaf, and the root. In each group, we selected one model among these six models for each component. The results showed that including the CR greatly improved the model performance and reduced the error, especially for the young and mature forests. In addition, to ensure biomass additivity, the selected equation for each component was fitted as a system of equations using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR). The SUR method not only gave efficient and accurate estimates but also achieved the logical additivity. The results in this study provide a robust estimation of tree biomass components and total biomass over three groups of C. equisetifolia