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Nitrate (NO3−), one of the most important inorganic aerosols in the atmosphere, is mainly formed by oxidation of NOx by the hydroxyl radical (OH) and ozone (O3) in urban atmospheres. However, the fractional contributions of its various oxidation pathways remain unclear. Here, we collected particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) samples in a second‐tier city in southeast China from 1 September to 31 December 2017 and measured the NO3− and nitrate isotopic compositions (δ15N and δ18O). The average concentration of NO3−, δ15N, and δ18O values were 14.7 ± 11.6 μg/m3, (+4.3 ± 4.3)‰, and (+71.8 ± 14.7)‰ with the ranges from 0.8 to 57.7 μg/m3, −10.5‰ to +12.5‰ and +34.5‰ to +91.9‰, respectively. All three species were significantly higher in winter than in summer. Based on a Bayesian mixing model with a dual isotope array for NO3−, contributions of (37.1 ± 33.4)%, (60.3 ± 32.2)%, and (2.6 ± 2.7)% to NO3− could be attributed to OH oxidation, N2O5 hydrolysis, and NO3 + hydrocarbon (HC) pathways, respectively. Higher OH radical concentrations with higher ratios of OH to O3 led to lower NO3− concentrations, while lower OH radical concentrations with higher ratios of O3 to OH led to higher contributions of N2O5 hydrolysis, forming higher NO3− concentrations in winter. Under low OH, an increased O3 to NOx ratio increased the contribution of the NO3 + HC pathway. The comprehensive analysis of the isotopic compositions of nitrate helped identify the importance of major oxidation pathways of NOx in this city.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of sonication (S), microwave-vacuum (MWV), convective freezing (F), cryogenic freezing (N), and their combinations, as well as pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration (PVOD) on the drying kinetics, bioactive compounds, texture and color of whole cranberries during combined hot air convective drying, and microwave-vacuum drying (HACD+MWVD). Drying of berries took from 20 to 493 min. Drying rate was enhanced by 23% and drying time of non-osmotically dehydrated fruits was shortened by 33% using F treatment, while MWV decreased moisture content before drying by 68% and shortened the drying time of PVOD berries by 96%. Generally, total phenolic (TP) content increased during processing, total flavonoids (TF), and total monomeric anthocyanins (TMA) contents decreased, while the values of ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of dried fruits depended on the initial pretreatment. F and HACD+MWVD yielded fruits of the highest L* (33.8 ± 0.7), a* (25.2 ± 1.0), and b* (7.3 ± 0.6), inflated oval shape, and a small amount of wrinkles on the surface. PVOD and HACD+MWVD resulted in flat and wrinkled fruits.

When a structure is irradiated by a pulsed cold X-ray with high energy density, the instantaneous deposition of energy will induce melting, vaporization, and sublimation of the outer layer of material(s). As a result, the material(s) will blow off and hence lead to a so-called blow-off impulse. This kind of impulsive load will cause high-level structural responses. In order to investigate the effects, various test simulation techniques, such as the light-initiated high explosive (LIHE) technique, the spray lead at target (SPLAT) technique and the sheet-explosive technique, were developed due to the lack of proper X-ray sources. This paper presents a rod-explosive technique developed from the sheet-explosive technique. In this technique, the main property of the explosive, i.e. the specific impulse, is determined by using a pendulum test facility. The simulation load (equivalent to the cosine-distributed specific impulse on a conical shell induced by X-ray) is designed by load discretization and impulse equivalence. Numerical simulations of structural responses to both X-ray loads and rod-explosive loads were performed for validating the test simulation technique. An application example of testing a complex structure is briefly given in the end. The rod-explosive technique has the features of low costs and rather high fidelities. It provides a new approach for testing the structural responses induced by X-ray blow-off impulses.

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Atmospheric reactive nitrogen deposition is an important process in the nitrogen cycle of natural ecosystems, especially in oligotrophic oceans. Increased land‐based atmospheric nitrogen deposition over the ocean changes the stoichiometric balance of marine ecosystems; this causes changes in ecosystem functions and biogeochemical cycles. Current studies have shown that atmospheric reactive nitrogen is mainly derived from land‐based human activities, such as the use of fertilizers, combustion of fossil fuels, and forest fires. Forest fires can provide a vast amount of reactive nitrogen and other nutrients over short time scales and may greatly influence marine ecosystems. Here, we document a large change in nitrogen concentration and primary productivity in upper levels of the South China Sea (SCS), coincident with Indonesian forest fires between August and September of 2012. Using back trajectories, fire spot maps, geographical distributions of the smoke, vertical distributions of the depolarization ratio, and nitrogen isotope values of nitrate in rainwater, we found that the change in nitrogen could be attributed to the forest fires. Our results show that the SCS received about 180 Gg of N as wet deposition during the sampling period. This atmospheric nitrogen deposition caused high primary productivity (40.679 ± 15.852 mg C·m−2·hr−1) in the upper levels of the SCS, which tripled values recorded in other years. This suggests that high nitrogen levels as well as other nutrients derived from tropical Asian forest fires are of great importance to the marine ecosystem of the SCS and also likely affect global marine biogeochemical cycles.