Household solid fuel (biomass, coal) burning contributes to climate change and is a leading health risk factor. How and why households stop using solid fuel stoves after adopting clean fuels has not been studied. We assessed trends in the uptake, use, and suspension of household stoves and fuels in a multi-provincial cohort study of 753 Chinese adults and evaluated determinants of clean fuel uptake and solid fuel suspension. Over one-third (35%) and one-fifth (17%) of participants suspended use of solid fuel for cooking and heating, respectively, during the past 20 years. Determinants of solid fuel suspension (younger age, widowed) and of earlier suspension (younger age, higher education, and poor self-reported health status) differed from the determinants of clean fuel uptake (younger age, higher income, smaller households, and retired) and of earlier adoption (higher income). Clean fuel adoption and solid fuel suspension warrant joint consideration as indicators of household energy transition. Household energy research and planning efforts that more closely examine solid fuel suspension may accelerate household energy transitions that benefit climate and human health.
The ease and effectiveness of colony polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has allowed rapid amplification of DNA fragments and screening of large number of colonies of interest including transformants and mutants with genetic manipulations. Here, we evaluated colony PCR in Chlamydomonas. Individual colonies were treated with 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or Chelex-100 and the resulting clear cell lysate was used for PCR reaction. Either genomic DNA or plasmid DNA incorporated into the genome was equally amplified. We found that the Chelex method is superior to EDTA method in certain cases. This colony PCR technique will bypass the tedious process of isolating genomic DNA for PCR reaction and will make it possible for rapid amplification of genomic DNA fragments as well as rapid large-scale screening of transformants.
Human pulse signals contain important and useful physiological information for the auxiliary diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Here, a wearable pulse sensor based on piezo‐thermic transduction is reported using a structured silver‐particle reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane, for monitoring radial arterial pulse waves. The structured silver‐particle reinforced PDMS membrane is optimally designed to meet the specific requirements on sensitivity, linearity, and effective preload measuring range for pulse detection by adjusting the air gap volume fraction and silver particle volume fraction of the structured material. The sensor is endowed with high sensitivity, good linearity in preload measuring range, allowing to detect the subtle pulse waveforms of subjects at different ages under different contact pressures, such as superficial (Fu), medium (Zhong) and deep (Chen). The developed pulse device provides a promising approach for homecare pulse monitoring.
The port of Shanghai, as the world’s largest container port, has been experiencing rapid development in recent years, with increasing cargo throughput capacity. The combustion of diesel fuels used by internal and external port-related container trucks and in-port machineries can release various pollutants, causing air pollution. The terminals are close to the residential area, and the emissions are concentrated, which is worth paying attention to. This study aims to synthetically assess the port-related emissions and their environmental impacts. We firstly constructed an emission inventory of air pollutants in the port of Shanghai and then used the WRF-CMAQ model to estimate the influence of port-related source emissions on air quality. The results show that the annual emissions of SO2, NOX, CO, VOCS, PM, PM10, PM2.5, CO2, BC and OC caused by cargo-handling equipment were 21.88 t, 1811.22 t, 1741.72 t, 222.76 t, 61.52 t, 61.42 t, 58.41 t, 141,805.40 t, 26.80 t and 10.07 t in 2015. The emissions of NOX, CO, VOCS, PM10 and PM2.5 caused by external port-related container trucks were 18,002.92 t, 5308.0 t, 1134.57 t, 711.12 t and 640.58 t. The exhaust of external port-related container trucks was much larger than that of cargo-handling equipment, so the impact on air quality was also higher than that of the machinery. The peak annual average concentrations of PM2.5 and NOX contributed by the port-related sources were 1.75 μg/m3 and 49.21 μg/m3, respectively, which accounted for 3.08% and 36.7%, respectively, of the simulated ambient concentrations by all the anthropogenic emissions in Shanghai. Our results imply that the emission control policy to reduce the combined port-related emissions, especially for the cargo-delivery transportation phase from port to city, is key for large coastal port cities such as Shanghai.
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