Environmental Oxygen Concentration Research Articles

Differential impact of chronic intermittent hypoxia and stress changes on condylar development

ObjectivesThis study aimed to determine the effects of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) and stress change (SC) on the development of the condyle in mouth breathing rats. DesignA total of 120 4-week-old rats were randomly assigned to one of five groups. The control (Ctrl) group was the blank control and the intermittent nasal obstruction (INO) group was the positive control. Mild CIH (mCIH) and severe CIH (sCIH) groups were developed by adjusting environmental oxygen concentration and monitoring real-time blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). The SC group was developed using INO, increased environmental oxygen concentration, and real-time SpO2 monitoring. Six rats from each group were sacrificed for analysis at 0, 1, 2, or 4 weeks. ResultsSimilar to the INO group, condyle and mandibular body development in the sCIH group, but not in the mCIH group, was significantly inhibited compared with the Ctrl group. The SC group had inhibited development of the condyle, especially of the posterior zone, but had minimal impact on the growth of the mandible. ConclusionThe inhibitory effects of CIH on the development of the condyle and mandibular body were SpO2-dose-dependent. When SC occurred, inhibited development was observed in the posterior zone of condyle but not the whole mandible. These findings provide important insights for targeted interventions that address the consequences of mouth breathing in children.

Binding of Akkermansia muciniphila to mucin is O-glycan specific

The intestinal anaerobic bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila is specialized in the degradation of mucins, which are heavily O-glycosylated proteins that constitute the major components of the mucus lining the intestine. Despite that adhesion to mucins is considered critical for the persistence of A. muciniphila in the human intestinal tract, our knowledge of how this intestinal symbiont recognizes and binds to mucins is still limited. Here, we first show that the mucin-binding properties of A. muciniphila are independent of environmental oxygen concentrations and not abolished by pasteurization. We then dissected the mucin-binding properties of pasteurized A. muciniphila by use of a recently developed cell-based mucin array that enables display of the tandem repeats of human mucins with distinct O-glycan patterns and structures. We found that A. muciniphila recognizes the unsialylated LacNAc (Galβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-R) disaccharide selectively on core2 and core3 O-glycans. This disaccharide epitope is abundantly found on human colonic mucins capped by sialic acids, and we demonstrated that endogenous A. muciniphila neuraminidase activity can uncover the epitope and promote binding. In summary, our study provides insights into the mucin-binding properties important for colonization of a key mucin-foraging bacterium.

Organosilica Nanosensors for Monitoring Spatiotemporal Changes in Oxygen Levels in Bacterial Cultures.

Oxygen plays a central role in aerobic metabolism, and while many approaches have been developed to measure oxygen concentration in biological environments over time, monitoring spatiotemporal changes in dissolved oxygen levels remains challenging. To address this, we developed a ratiometric core-shell organosilica nanosensor for continuous, real-time optical monitoring of oxygen levels in biological environments. The nanosensors demonstrate good steady state characteristics (KpSV = 0.40 L/mg, R2 = 0.95) and respond reversibly to changes in oxygen concentration in buffered solutions and report similar oxygen level changes in response to bacterial cell growth (Escherichia coli) in comparison to a commercial bulk optode-based sensing film. We further demonstrated that the oxygen nanosensors could be distributed within a growing culture of E. coli and used to record oxygen levels over time and in different locations within a static culture, opening the possibility of spatiotemporal monitoring in complex biological systems.

Culture of Human Embryos at High and Low Oxygen Levels.

One of the parameters potentially affecting the in vitro growth of preimplantation embryos is the oxygen concentration in the culture environment. An increased oxygen concentration causes the generation of ROS which in turn can cause damage to the cells and seriously disrupt the embryonic development. Previous studies have assessed oxygen concentrations in the fallopian tubes of several mammals of between 5 and 8%, while the oxygen levels in the uterus were found to be even lower; similar measurements have been confirmed in humans. In addition, studies in mammalian embryos showed that low oxygen concentrations improve embryo development. Multiple studies on the effect of the oxygen concentration on human embryos have been conducted so far with diverse methodologies and objectives. Data from these have been included in three meta-analyses. All meta-analyses indicate the potential benefit in favor of a low oxygen concentration, though data are considered to be of a low methodological quality and further studies are considered necessary. However, based on the existing evidence, it is suggested that a low oxygen concentration should be adopted in the routine of the IVF laboratory, especially in the case of blastocyst culture.

Impact of hyperoxia on the phenotype of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells

Objective: To investigate the influence of varied oxygen (O2) concentration environments on the phenotypic transformation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) and the mechanism of pulmonary hypertension. Methods: Primary rat PASMC were isolated and cultured through the process of enzymatic digestion. Following identification, the stable passaged PASMC were subjected to a 6-hour incubation in sealed containers with normal O2 content (group C) and relative O2 content comprising 55% (group H55), 75% (group H75), and 95% (group H95). mRNA and protein expression of α-Actin (α-SMA), smooth muscle 22α (SM22α), osteopontin (OPN), and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) were measured using real-time quantitative PCR and western blot analysis. Results: The H55 group displayed no significant difference from the C group in terms of mRNA and relative protein expression levels for α-SMA, SM22α, OPN, and MMP-2 (all P>0.05). On the other hand, groups H75 and H95 exhibited a reduction in mRNA and relative protein expression of α-SMA and SM22α, along with an increase in mRNA and relative protein expression of OPN and MMP-2 when compared with both the C and H55 groups (all P<0.05). The H95 group showed a higher relative mRNA expression of MMP-2 as compared to the H75 group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Oxygen concentration environments of 75% or higher can serve as the foundation for the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension, essentially by inducing a phenotypic transformation in PASMC towards adopting a robust secretory function. This induction is contingent upon the concentration of oxygen present.

Hypoxia enhances anti-fibrotic properties of extracellular vesicles derived from hiPSCs via the miR302b-3p/TGFβ/SMAD2 axis

BackgroundCardiac fibrosis is one of the top killers among fibrotic diseases and continues to be a global unaddressed health problem. The lack of effective treatment combined with the considerable socioeconomic burden highlights the urgent need for innovative therapeutic options. Here, we evaluated the anti-fibrotic properties of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) that were cultured under various oxygen concentrations.MethodsEVs were isolated from three hiPSC lines cultured under normoxia (21% O2; EV-N) or reduced oxygen concentration (hypoxia): 3% O2 (EV-H3) or 5% O2 (EV-H5). The anti-fibrotic activity of EVs was tested in an in vitro model of cardiac fibrosis, followed by a detailed investigation of the underlying molecular mechanisms. Sequencing of EV miRNAs combined with bioinformatics analysis was conducted and a selected miRNA was validated using a miRNA mimic and inhibitor. Finally, EVs were tested in a mouse model of angiotensin II-induced cardiac fibrosis.ResultsWe provide evidence that an oxygen concentration of 5% enhances the anti-fibrotic effects of hiPS-EVs. These EVs were more effective in reducing pro-fibrotic markers in activated human cardiac fibroblasts, when compared to EV-N or EV-H3. We show that EV-H5 act through the canonical TGFβ/SMAD pathway, primarily via miR-302b-3p, which is the most abundant miRNA in EV-H5. Our results show that EV-H5 not only target transcripts of several profibrotic genes, including SMAD2 and TGFBR2, but also reduce the stiffness of activated fibroblasts. In a mouse model of heart fibrosis, EV-H5 outperformed EV-N in suppressing the inflammatory response in the host and by attenuating collagen deposition and reducing pro-fibrotic markers in cardiac tissue.ConclusionsIn this work, we provide evidence of superior anti-fibrotic properties of EV-H5 over EV-N or EV-H3. Our study uncovers that fine regulation of oxygen concentration in the cellular environment may enhance the anti-fibrotic effects of hiPS-EVs, which has great potential to be applied for heart regeneration.Graphical

Designing Superlubricious Hydrogels from Spontaneous Peroxidation Gradients.

Hydrogels are hydrated three-dimensional networks of hydrophilic polymers that are commonly used in the biomedical industry due to their mechanical and structural tunability, biocompatibility, and similar water content to biological tissues. The surface structure of hydrogels polymerized through free-radical polymerization can be modified by controlling environmental oxygen concentrations, leading to the formation of a polymer concentration gradient. In this work, 17.5 wt % polyacrylamide hydrogels are polymerized in low (0.01 mol % O2) and high (20 mol % O2) oxygen environments, and their mechanical and tribological properties are characterized through microindentation, nanoindentation, and tribological sliding experiments. Without significantly reducing the elastic modulus of the hydrogel (E* ≈ 200 kPa), we demonstrate an order of magnitude reduction in friction coefficient (from μ = 0.021 ± 0.006 to μ = 0.002 ± 0.001) by adjusting polymerization conditions (e.g., oxygen concentration). A quantitative analytical model based on polyacrylamide chemistry and kinetics was developed to estimate the thickness and structure of the monomer conversion gradient, termed the "surface gel layer". We find that polymerizing hydrogels at high oxygen concentrations leads to the formation of a preswollen surface gel layer that is approximately five times thicker (t ≈ 50 μm) and four times less concentrated (≈ 6% monomer conversion) at the surface prior to swelling compared to low oxygen environments (t ≈ 10 μm, ≈ 20% monomer conversion). Our model could be readily modified to predict the preswollen concentration profile of the polyacrylamide gel surface layer for any reaction conditions─monomer and initiator concentration, oxygen concentration, reaction time, and reaction media depth─or used to select conditions that correspond to a certain desired surface gel layer profile.

Chronic Thermal Acclimation Effects on Critical Thermal Maxima (CTmax) and Oxidative Stress Differences in White Epaxial Muscle between Surface and Cave Morphotypes of the Mexican Cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus).

AbstractIn the face of increasing environmental temperatures, operative differences between mitochondrial function and whole-animal phenotypic response to the environment are underrepresented in research, especially in subtemperate ectothermic vertebrates. A novel approach to exploring this connection is to examine model species that are genetically similar but that have different whole-animal phenotypes, each of which inhabits different environments. The blind Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) has the following two morphotypes: a surface form found in aboveground rivers and an obligate cave-dwelling form. Each morphotype inhabits vastly different thermal and oxygen environments. Whole-animal and mitochondrial responses to thermal acclimation and oxidative stress, with respect to increasing temperatures, have not been previously determined in either morphotype of this species. Here, we chronically acclimated both morphotypes to three temperatures (14°C, 25°C, and 31°C) to establish potential for acclimation and critical thermal maxima (CTmax) for each morphotype of this species. After measuring CTmax in six cohorts, we additionally measured enzymatic antioxidant capacity (catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase activities), peroxyl scavenging capacity, and lipid peroxidation damage in white epaxial muscle for each individual. We found a significant effect of acclimation temperature on CTmax (, ) but no effect of morphotype on CTmax (, ). Additionally, we found that morphotype had a significant effect on glutathione peroxidase activity, with the surface morphotype having increased glutathione peroxidase activity compared with the cave morphotype (, ). No other oxidative stress variable demonstrated significant differences. Increases in CTmax with chronic thermal acclimation to higher temperatures suggests that there is some degree of phenotypic plasticity in this species that nominally occupies thermally stable environments. The decreased glutathione peroxidase activity in the cave morphotype may be related to decreased environmental oxygen concentration and decreased metabolic rate in this environmentally constrained morphotype compared to in its surface-living counterparts.

Hypoxic response patterns in lung tissue: An integrated analysis of comparative physiological and transcriptomic studies from Neodon fuscus and Lasiopodomys brandtii

Oxygen (O2) is essential for the survival and reproduction of most species. However, in recent years, with global climate change and the increasing impact of human activities on the ecosystem, the frequency of extreme environmental events, such as heat waves, cold waves, droughts, and floods, has increased, resulting in dramatic changes in environmental oxygen concentration (hypoxic environment, etc.), threatening the survival of animals and pushing them toward extreme adaptation. In this context, how organisms, especially those with differences in original habitats, adapt to low oxygen environment is particularly important. In this study, we systematically analyzed hypoxic response patterns in lung tissues of small rodents Neodon fuscus, Lasiopodomys brandtii, and Mus musculus with different experiences of natural hypoxia tolerance through laboratory simulation of hypoxia environment, combined with hematological, histological, and transcriptomic analysis. Our results show that all three species exhibit increased antioxidant defense and damage repair ability to a certain extent under hypoxia, although the specific molecular mechanisms are not the same. L. brandtii showed better damage repair ability than the others, which is likely to be closely related to the intermittent hypoxia environment experienced in the natural environment, and genes such as Glrx5, Prdx2, Col1a1, Lama1, and Eln may play a crucial role in this process. In addition, we found that both N. fuscus and L. brandtii appropriately enhanced oxygen transport in tissues under hypoxic conditions, with a series of functional genes related to hemoglobin synthesis and vascular smooth muscle contraction were significantly up-regulated in both species of voles, such as Actg2, Ptgir, Alas2, Hba, Hbb and Bpgm. Our results, to a certain extent, reveal the differences and similarities of hypoxic response patterns in lung tissues of small rodents with different hypoxic life histories and provide a relatively perfect analytical paradigm for related studies.

Design of Control System for Cultural Relics Testing Room Based on STM32

This paper designs a control system for a cultural relic test chamber based on STM32. The system uses the STM32 processor as the underlying main control of oxygen concentration and humidity and uses an industrial all-in-one machine as the bridge to exchange the information between the cloud server and the bottom master controller. The oxygen concentration, humidity and temperature data of the test chamber can be stored on the server in real-time, and the alarm messages are sent through the cloud SMS platform. The results reveal that the oxygen concentration in the test chamber could be adjusted continuously between 0.6% ~ 10% VOL and the relative humidity could be adjusted continuously within 45% ~ 55% RH, and it can keep stable near the set value. The system can meet the requirements of oxygen concentration and humidity for most cultural relics preservation and can also provide a settable constant oxygen concentration and humidity environment for the related research of anoxic treatment and modified atmosphere technology.

Effects of surface oxide layer on the impact dynamic behavior of molten aluminum droplets

Oxide layer is easily formed on the surface of some metal droplets, which affects the dynamic behavior of droplet impact. In this paper, experiments were conducted for the impacting process of a molten aluminum droplet on a Teflon substrate. The thickness of surface oxide layer of aluminum droplets was controlled by varying oxygen concentrations in the gas atmosphere. The effects of oxygen concentration and Weber number on droplet spread, rebound, and splash behavior were investigated. The results show that the oxygen concentration in the environment directly affects the droplet impact behavior. The differences in the droplet retraction process at different oxygen concentrations are more significant than the spread process. Strong retraction causes droplet rebound (We = 17.11) and splash (We = 102.3) in hypoxic environments, whereas only weak retraction in air. The viscous dissipation of the droplet impact in different oxygen concentration environment is estimated by counting the droplet bounce height, and the dissipation increases with the increase in the oxygen concentration. The thickness of the oxide layer measured by scanning electron microscope became thinner as the oxygen concentration decreases and, accordingly, the aluminum droplet collisions show different dynamic behavior. The experimental results are analyzed and explained regarding the reduction in surface tension, the increase in viscous forces, and the shear-thinning properties which increase the viscous dissipation during retraction. Ryan model was used to predict the droplet maximum spreading factor ξmax with the Weber number to the power of 0.5, better than the energy conservation-based Pasandideh-Fard model.

High temperature thermographic phosphors YAG:Tm;Li and YAG:Dy in reduced oxygen environments

Phosphor thermometry for surface temperature measurements has become an established remote thermometry technique. However, measuring at temperatures above 1700 K is still challenging because of the weak phosphorescence and intense background from black-body radiation, leading to low signal-to-noise ratios. Therefore, lifetime-based phosphor thermometry with YAG:Tm;Li and YAG:Dy for high-temperature applications were investigated in this study with the aim of improving the precision of high-temperature measurements. The phosphors were coated on an alumina-oxide disc, which was placed in a temperature-controlled oven that exposed the phosphors to temperatures of up to 1930 K. The emission spectra and temporal decay of the luminescence were recorded for the investigated phosphors including their sensitivity to oxygen concentration in the gas environment. Knowledge of oxygen environment sensitivities for measurements of reduced oxygen concentrations at high temperatures, such as in combustion, is of great importance to increase confidence in the measurement. The results suggest that performing a mono-exponential decay time fit in a region of the decay curve that is dominated by a single lifetime component reduces the sensitivity to changes in the gas oxygen concentration for YAG:Tm;Li. Moreover, YAG:Tm;Li performs better than YAG:Dy in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), with a peak signal value and SNR almost an order of magnitude higher. With an appropriate decay curve fitting procedure, the effects of oxygen quenching can be minimized, such that the measurement error due to oxygen quenching is within the measurement precision for both phosphors.

Discrimination of phosgene from cyanogen chloride in recovered chemical munitions using tagged neutron interrogation with high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy

The associated particle (AP) technique has recently been used with a high-purity germanium γ-ray spectrometer to assess its capability to improve field identification of recovered chemical warfare (CW) materiel through prompt gamma-ray neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) measurements. A particularly challenging pair of CW agents commonly found in recovered munitions are phosgene (CG) and cyanogen chloride (CK), which have two of three elements in common, i.e. chlorine and carbon, but differ in the third being either oxygen or nitrogen. The detection of both latter elements is complicated by high oxygen concentration in the field environment which interferes with the small signal produced from the chemical agents. The matter is further complicated by the precautionary field practice of overpacking recovered munitions with vermiculite in larger steel multiple round containers (MRCs), which places additional oxygen-rich material in contact with the munition while further attenuating an already weak signal emitted from the munition center. This work reports quantitative results from realistic field measurements of CG and CK simulants in mock 4.2-inch (11 cm) mortar rounds overpacked with vermiculite in a large MRC. Results obtained with the AP technique are compared to those obtained with the traditional PGNAA approach for both overpacked- and bare-munition measurements. The AP technique is shown to provide a much more confident discrimination between the two chemicals, particularly for the more challenging field-relevant overpacked measurements, where a significant gain in sensitivity to all the key elements (chlorine, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen) is achieved.

Simultaneous sensing of oxygen concentration and temperature utilizing rise and decay of the phosphorescence of Y2O3:Eu3+ in high-temperature environments

Inorganic phosphorescence-based sensing technology provides the opportunity to obtain non-contact oxygen information in high-temperature environments. However, given the dual quenching effects of temperature and oxygen, the sensing of oxygen in high-temperature environments using inorganic phosphorescence usually requires constant temperature conditions or accurate temperature information as a reference. Herein, a simultaneous sensing technique of oxygen and temperature is proposed in this study to achieve accurate quantitative sensing of oxygen concentration in high-temperature environments. We clarified theoretically that the rise and decay behavior of phosphorescence will be affected by both oxygen concentration and temperature due to the effect of oxygen quenching and thermal quenching and verified that both the rise and decay constant of the phosphorescence were sensitive to oxygen and temperature when the temperature is over 450 °C. A binary equation model was then established to obtain the temperature and oxygen concentration information. The experimental results demonstrate that quantitative two-dimensional sensing of oxygen concentrations in high-temperature environments can be achieved using the current method with only UV light and a high-speed camera. The current study promises a simple, easy-to-operate, and low-cost oxygen sensing method, which provides a reference for the development of high-precision optical oxygen concentration sensing technology in high-temperature environments.

Effect of oxygen concentration on the corrosion behavior of Cr-coated Ni alloy in supercritical water oxidation environment

To improve the corrosion resistance of component materials in supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) environment, a 15 µm Cr coating was prepared on Alloy 625 by magnetron sputtering, and the effect of oxygen concentration (0 M, 0.16 M, and 0.94 M) on the stability of the Cr coating in an SCW environment was investigated. Results show that the stability of the Cr2O3 layer strongly depends on the oxygen concentration in the exposure environment. The protective Cr2O3 layer was transformed to soluble Cr(VI) species and dissolved in SCW containing 0.94 M oxygen. Except for Cr2O3, some Fe/Ni containing oxides were also detected. The stability of the Cr coating in SCW with different concentrations of oxygen is discussed.

P345 The relationship between virulence of Candida albicans and environmental oxygen concentration

Poster session 3, September 23, 2022, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PMObjectives Candida species are known to colonize human skins and mucous membranes, and cause candidemia under various immunosuppressive conditions. Among these Candida species, C. albicans is reported to be the most frequently isolated species, and could colonize on skins, vaginas, gastrointestinal tracts, and medical devices. Environmental factors including oxygen concentration is thought to affect the capability of colonization and virulence of Candida species; however, most previous research was performed under aerobic condition, and few research focused on hypoxic conditions imitating inside the human bodies. Given these backgrounds, we performed murine experiments by culturing C. albicans under various oxygen conditions to evaluate the effect of environmental oxygen concentration on virulence. Through our studies, we aimed to clarify the actual behavior of C. albicans in the human body.MethodsIn this study, female C57BL/6 mice, 7-8 weeks old, were used and injected via lateral tail vein to cause C. albicans dissemination. Mice were divided into 4 groups according to the pre-culture conditions: aerobic, microaerobic (5% oxygen concentration), microaerobic (1% oxygen concentration), and anaerobic. Under each oxygen condition, C. albicans was grown at 37°C for 2 days on yeast extract peptone dextrose (YPD) agar and then incubated in YPD broth for 16-24 h. After incubation, C. albicans was collected, washed, resuspended in sterile PBS, and injected into each mouse at ∼2.5 × 105 colony-forming units. In this study, one reference strain (SC5314) and one clinically isolated strain (from bloodstream infection) were used. These infected mice were euthanatized 2 or 4 days after injection, and organ (kidneys and brain) fungal burdens were evaluated.ResultsThe kidneys’ fungal burdens were significantly higher in the microaerobic groups than those in the aerobic or anaerobic groups 2 and 4 days after injection. There were no significant differences between 5% oxygen concentration pre-cultured group and 1% oxygen concentration pre-cultured group. On gross examination, disseminated lesion formations were visible in the kidneys of the microaerobic groups. Similarly, the fungal burdens of brain were significantly higher in the microaerobically pre-cultured groups than in the aerobically or anaerobically pre-cultured groups. This tendency was similar for both the reference and clinically isolated strain.ConclusionOur results indicated that C. albicans could become more virulent under hypoxia, especially under microaerobic conditions. We assumed that some virulence factors of C. albicans were elevated under microaerobic conditions. These results implicated that C. albicans could become more virulent under hypoxic conditions in human bodies. In the future, we will continue to evaluate factors related to this change in virulence and pathological analysis of infected organs.

Decomposing medusae as substrata for bacterial growth and their potential contribution to environmental hypoxia

Decomposing jellyfishes at 9ᵒC showed exponential loss in wet and dry weight, particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon and particulate organic nitrogen (PON), with turnover times of 3.5–4.2 d. The amount (%) carbon and nitrogen of carcasses, decreased linearly over time, but the C/N atomic ratio remained stable at 7. The daily decline of POC and PON, as a % of starting C and N, both showed a negative relationship with medusa weight, but with a stable POC/PON atomic ratio at 9.1. Five morphological groups of bacteria that co-occurred with the medusa, all exhibited exponential growth, with an average daily biomass doubling rate between 2.8 and 4.9. Over a 3-d period the biomass ratio between coccoids and spirills increased by a factor of 76. Oxygen consumption in the surrounding water was on average 0.34 ± 0.10 mg l−1 h−1 and slightly increasing over time. Assuming the oxygen consumption being a function of bacterial respiration, the bacterial growth efficiency increased exponentially from <3% during the first 25 h to 16% after 55 h. Incorporating all of these results, the potential impact of decomposing jellyfishes on environmental oxygen concentration could be simulated, with the biomass of decomposing medusae and water-mixing volume as input variables. Such simulations would be useful to forecast environmental hypoxia.

Use of high-flow oxygen treatment in the emergency medical service: what are the dangers for users from the perspective of occupational and fire protection?

The administration of high concentrations of oxygen may harm patients or paramedics by increasing the probability of fire. The presented work investigated the effect of oxygen applied via high flow in different concentrations and flow rates on environmental oxygen concentrations in the patient compartment of an ambulance. Environmental oxygen concentrations increased rapidly over time and oxygen is stored in blankets and clothes over along period. Simulation in afire laboratory showed that also in high oxygen concentration settings fire needs aflame or temperatures above 300 °C. Sparks alone were not able to start afire. Ventilation of patient compartment and clothes with ambient air are mandatory to reduce dangerous oxygen concentrations in transport of patients on high-flow oxygen treatment.

Assessment of coal spontaneous combustion index gas under different oxygen concentration environment: an experimental study.

Oxygen plays a crucial role in coal spontaneous combustion (CSC), and the magnitude of oxygen concentration determines the oxidation reaction intensity of CSC. This work is aiming to investigate the contribution of oxygen concentration to CSC and to predict the spontaneous combustion stage of coal at different oxygen concentrations. Firstly, experiments on the spontaneous combustion of coal samples at six oxygen concentrations (6%, 9%, 12%, 15%, 18%, and 21%) were carried out combined with a temperature-programmed system. Then, the gas products at different temperature stages were extracted to provide detailed classification and assessment of the indicator gasses for coal spontaneous combustion at different oxygen concentrations. The results show that the oxygen concentration and the crossing point temperature (CPT) are inversely proportional. The higher the oxygen concentration, the more intense the coal-oxygen complex reaction and the greater the gas product concentration. The critical temperature of some stages in high oxygen concentration environment is lower than that in low oxygen concentration environment. The oxidation process can be slowed down by reducing the oxygen concentration as much as possible. Indicator gasses are different for different oxygen concentration environments and should be selected reasonably and optimally to match the specific environment for judging natural coal fires in order to effectively prevent coal spontaneous combustion fire disasters.

Multiple pollutants control of NO, benzene and toluene from coal-fired plant by Mo/Ni impregnated TiO2-based NH3-SCR catalyst: A DFT supported experimental study

There was a dearth of understanding regarding the mechanism of MPC catalyst activity and the creation of effective MPC catalysts for industrial low oxygen and high SO2 concentration environments. Herein, Mo/Ni was utilized to modify the commonly used WVTiOX catalyst to investigate the role and reaction mechanism of Mo/Ni in the MPC process. Mo/Ni doping greatly improved the MPC performance of the WVTiOX catalyst, increased the number of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites on the surface, promoted surface active oxygen Oα ratio, and intensified metal oxide synergy. The TiO2 (001) models of WVTiOX and NiWVTiOX catalysts were built, and the adsorption energies of NH3, O2, NO, C6H6, and C7H8 gaseous molecules on the surfaces of the two catalysts were calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The DFT and in situ DRIFTS results proved that NH3-SCR process of the catalyst was mainly governed by the L-H mechanism, while the E-R mechanism also worked to a certain extent. The following are possible benzene and toluene oxidation pathways on NiWVTiOX: C6H6 → C6H4O2 → C4H2O3 → CO2 + H2O and C7H8 → C6H5CH2OH → C6H5CHO → C6H5COOH → C4H2O3 → CO2 + H2O.