No abstract

Sloping croplands could result in soil erosion, which leads to non-point source pollution of the aquatic system in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region. Mulberry, a commonly grown cash plant in the region, is traditionally planted in contour hedgerows as an effective management practice to control soil erosion and non-point source pollution. In this field study, surface runoff and soil N and P loss on sloping land under crop-mulberry management were investigated. The experiments consisted of six crop-mulberry treatments: Control (no mulberry hedgerow with mustard-corn rotation); T1 (two-row contour mulberry with mustard-corn rotation); T2 (three-row contour mulberry with mustard-corn rotation); T3 (border mulberry and one-row contour mulberry with mustard-corn rotation); T4 (border mulberry with mustard-corn rotation); T5 (two-row longitudinal mulberry with mustard). The results indicated that crop-mulberry systems could effectively reduce surface runoff and soil and nutrient loss from arable slope land. Surface runoff from T1 (342.13 m(3) hm(-2)), T2 (260.6 m(3) hm(-2)), T3 (113.13 m(3) hm(-2)), T4 (114 m(3) hm(-2)), and T5 (129 m(3) hm(-2)) was reduced by 15.4, 35.6, 72.0, 71.8, and 68.1%, respectively, while soil loss from T1 (0.21 t hm(-2)), T2 (0.13 t hm(-2)), T3 (0.08 t hm(-2)), T4 (0.11 t hm(-2)), and T5 (0.12 t hm(-2)) was reduced by 52.3, 70.5, 81.8, 75.0, and 72.7%, respectively, as compared with the control. Crop-mulberry ecosystem would also elevate soil N by 22.3% and soil P by 57.4%, and soil nutrient status was contour-line dependent.

Coal is presently the largest source of electricity in China, with the increasing demand for electricity, the problems of environment pollution become more and more severe. In order to solve the problems, all options for power generation by new and renewable energies are enjoying growing attention in recent years. China has abundant solar energy resources and large wasteland areas, which makes China an ideal country for solar thermal power generation development. However, its present higher costs for China made it difficult to promote large-scale. Under this condition solar hybrid with coal thermal power generation becomes the best solution of the problem. In this paper, the feasibility of solar hybrid with coal thermal power generation in China was analyzed from the aspects of environment, policy, investment risk and economics.

No abstract

Traditionally, electrochromic materials rely on counter redox materials like ferrocene to realize redox processes. In this work, two novel, closely related series of electrochromic materials bearing push‐pull electronic structure were designed and synthesised (N,N,N’,N’‐tetra(pyridin‐4‐yl)‐1,4‐phenylenediamine derivatives (TPPDs) and N,N,N′,N′‐tetra(pyridin‐4‐yl)benzidine derivatives (TPBDs)). When stimulated by an external electric field, both series of compounds exhibited intramolecular charge transfer because of their push‐pull electronic structures. Therefore, the TPPDs and TPBDs could undergo redox processes without the assistance of counter electrode chemicals. Furthermore, the TPPDs and TPBDs could replace the electrolyte that is required in conventional electrochromic devices (ECDs) because of their conductivity. This allowed the fabrication of a simple, single‐component ECD.