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Abstract. This study presents the development of tools for the sustainable thermal management of a shallow unconsolidated urban groundwater body in the city of Basel (Switzerland). The concept of the investigations is based on (1) a characterization of the present thermal state of the urban groundwater body, and (2) the evaluation of potential mitigation measures for the future thermal management of specific regions within the groundwater body. The investigations focus on thermal processes down-gradient of thermal groundwater use, effects of heated buildings in the subsurface as well as the thermal influence of river–groundwater interaction. Investigation methods include (1) short- and long-term data analysis, (2) high-resolution multilevel groundwater temperature monitoring, as well as (3) 3-D numerical groundwater flow and heat transport modeling and scenario development. The combination of these methods allows for the quantifying of the thermal influences on the investigated urban groundwater body, including the influences of thermal groundwater use and heated subsurface constructions. Subsequently, first implications for management strategies are discussed, including minimizing further groundwater temperature increase, targeting "potential natural" groundwater temperatures for specific aquifer regions and exploiting the thermal potential.

Background and Aims: Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) accounts for 70% of liver-related deaths in Europe, with no effective approved therapies. Although mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the earliest manifestations of alcohol-induced injury, restoring mitochondrial activity remains a problematic strategy due to oxidative stress. Here, we identify methylation-controlled J protein (MCJ) as a mediator for ALD progression and hypothesize that targeting MCJ may help in recovering mitochondrial fitness without collateral oxidative damage. Approach and Results: C57BL/6 mice [wild-type (Wt)] Mcj knockout and Mcj liver-specific silencing (MCJ-LSS) underwent the NIAAA dietary protocol (Lieber-DeCarli diet containing 5% (vol/vol) ethanol for 10 days, plus a single binge ethanol feeding at day 11). To evaluate the impact of a restored mitochondrial activity in ALD, the liver, gut, and pancreas were characterized, focusing on lipid metabolism, glucose homeostasis, intestinal permeability, and microbiota composition. MCJ, a protein acting as an endogenous negative regulator of mitochondrial respiration, is downregulated in the early stages of ALD and increases with the severity of the disease. Whole-body deficiency of MCJ is detrimental during ALD because it exacerbates the systemic effects of alcohol abuse through altered intestinal permeability, increased endotoxemia, and dysregulation of pancreatic function, which overall worsens liver injury. On the other hand, liver-specific Mcj silencing prevents main ALD hallmarks, that is, mitochondrial dysfunction, steatosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress, as it restores the NAD+/NADH ratio and SIRT1 function, hence preventing de novo lipogenesis and improving lipid oxidation. Conclusions: Improving mitochondrial respiration by liver-specific Mcj silencing might become a novel therapeutic approach for treating ALD.

Community sociologists have examined community attachment through an almost exclusive focus on people’s social relations. Recent research efforts have noted the neglect of the physical place in traditional community sociological studies. Doing this has brought the physical environment into their discussions of community attachment. Despite this progress, we remain limited in our understanding of the physical environment’s contribution to peoples’ attachment to their communities and whether its effect on community attachment is applicable in the context of urban settings. In an effort to expand our knowledge of this topic, this study explored the contributions of the urban physical environment on community attachment. By selecting the Discovery Green Park as a typical form of physical environment in Houston, Texas, this study sought to investigate how people’s levels of community attachment could be predicted by: (1) peoples’ interactions with an urban park; (2) people’s emotional connections with such a park; and (3) peoples’ social interactions with others within the park. After conducting a series of block model regression analyses, we found that community attachment was not completely defined by social factors, but also depended upon peoples’ emotional connections with the local physical environment and the social interactions happening in those settings.

In recent years, the continuous spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has impacted the supply chain of enterprises. Mitigating the supply chain’s vulnerability has great significance for the survival and development of enterprises. Optimizing the business environment and building a digital government will help improve the external environment for enterprise development. However, its impact on the vulnerability of the enterprise supply chain has yet to be studied. Taking the impact of COVID-19 as an example, this paper uses the survey data of nearly 40,000 enterprises of the National Federation of Industry and Commerce in 2020 and “10,000 private enterprises evaluating the business environment”, to conduct systematic empirical research and fill the research gap in this area. The study indicates that the business environment and digital government can significantly mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain. This conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that the business environment and digital government can prompt the government to introduce effective mitigation measures promptly, better guarantee production factors and logistics, and thus improve the vulnerability of the enterprise supply chain. This study deepens our understanding of the economic outcome of the business environment and digital government and also sheds new light on supply chain management.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-sensitization of photosensitizer without an external light source to produce a photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect based on the principle of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (PDT-BRET). First, we demonstrated that HeLa cells could efficiently express firefly luciferase (FLase) after the firefly luciferase gene was transfected with the FLase-gene plasmid (FLase-GP), and proved that FLase could act on the substrate firefly D-luciferin (FLuc) to produce photons. The generated photons activate the photosensitizer hypericin (Hyp) and induce cytotoxicity. Then, we successfully prepared carboxymethyl chitosan-modified poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (CPNPs) loaded with FLuc (FLuc-CPNPs) and with loaded Hyp (Hyp-CPNPs). Their physicochemical and pharmaceutical characteristics indicated that they were an excellent drug delivery system. Characterization of the biological effects showed that they could be located in the mitochondrial, had higher ROS generation and stronger cytotoxicity. In vivo results also showed that PDT-BRET was as effective as classic PDT. PDT-BRET and the related drug delivery system are expected to become a new platform for anticancer therapy.

This study investigated the protective effect of aplysin on the liver and its influence on inflammation and the gut microbiota in rats with ethanol-induced liver injury.Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to an alcohol-containing liquid diet, control liquid diet or treatment with aplysin for 8 weeks. Hepatic and intestinal histopathological analysis was performed, and cytokine levels and the intestinal mucosal barrier were assessed. Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) and 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing were performed to provide an overview of the gut microbiota composition.Chronic alcohol exposure caused liver damage in rats. Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and triglyceride (TG) activities in liver tissue were higher than in the control group. Alcohol administration elevated the levels of serum transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and reduced interleukin-10 (IL-10) levels compared with those of control rats. In addition, the levels of plasma endotoxin, diamine oxidase (DAO), and fatty acid-binding protein 2 (FABP2) in the alcohol group were higher than in the control group. The results of ERIC-PCR indicated that aplysin treatment shifted the overall structure of the ethanol-disrupted gut microbiota toward that of the control group. One hundred twenty to 190 genera of bacteria were detected by high throughput sequencing. Alcohol-induced changes in the gut microbial composition were detected at the genus level. These alcohol-induced effects could be reversed with aplysin treatment.These results suggest that aplysin exerts a protective effect on ethanol-induced hepatic injury in rats by normalizing fecal microbiota composition and repairing intestinal barrier function.

Industrial hollowing-out is a kind of objective existence and phenomenon, as well as a process of metabolism which represents sending off old industries while welcoming the new in the development of industry. As every sword has its two edges, industrial hollowing-out is no exception. Seizing the new strategic opportunities of “the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road” and “the Yangtze River Economic Belt”, we should take advantages of the positive aspects of industrial structural adjustments and avoid their harmful sides to the development of economy, in order to optimize the industrial structure, maintain the industrial safety, and further promote the development of China's economy healthily and steadily, especially under the new normal.