Using an anti-icing coating to prevent ice accretion on the drill surface is a feasible solution to address the drilling difficulties in warm ice. In this study, four types of commercially available hydrophobic coating materials were tested to evaluate their water repellency and anti-icing properties, namely, a mixture of silica and fluorocarbon resin with polytrifluoroethylene, modified Teflon, silica-based emulsion and an acrylic-based copolymer. Their water contact angles are ~107°, 101°, 114° and 95°, respectively. All these hydrophobic coatings can significantly reduce the strength of the ice adhesion within a temperature range of −10 to −30°C on a planar or curved surface. The coating of an acrylic-based copolymer, in particular, can reduce the average tensile strength and the shear strength of the ice adhesion by 87.08 and 97.11% on planar surfaces at −30°C, and by 98.06 and 96.15% on a curved surface, respectively. The main challenge in the practical application of these coatings is their durability. An acrylic-based copolymer coating will lose its water repellency performance after 140 cycles of abrasion. The shear strength of ice adhered on curved surfaces coated with this material will approach that achieved on uncoated surfaces after 11 cycles of icing and de-icing tests.

Pollen in Quaternary deposits from the subtropical Hanjiang Delta records three major phases in the local vegetation and climate history during the last 55,000 yr: (1) a prevalent cool-to-temperate and humid climate at ca. 24,000 14C yr B.P. is indicated by abundant pollen of temperate trees including conifers; (2) between 20,000 and 15,000 14C yr B.P., a cold, dry environment was associated with low sea level during the last glaciation, leading to subaerial exposure, weathering, and interruption of sedimentation, as well as departure from the region of Dacrydium and Sonneratia; (3) a short-term expansion of grassland at ca. 10,300 14C yr B.P. reduced the predominant Lauraceae-Fagaceae evergreen forest, possibly corresponding to the Younger Dryas cooling. The combined data indicate a maximum sea-level rise in the mid-Holocene (7500–4000 14C yr B.P.) and a marine influence in the late Pleistocene at 45,000–20,000 14C yr B.P. The Holocene warming, however, did not bring back moisture-sensitive taxa, indicating high seasonal aridity probably caused by renewed monsoon conditions.

To assess the importance of climate variables for the distribution of modern pollen data in China, we present a continental-scale dataset consisting of 1374 samples. Boosted regression trees and constrained ordination techniques are employed to quantify the importance of six climate variables (annual precipitation, PANN; actual/potential evapotranspiration ratio, Alpha; mean annual temperature, TANN; mean temperature of the warmest month, MTWA; mean temperature of the coldest month, MTCO; annual sum of the growing degree days above 5°C, GDD5) for the distribution of individual pollen taxa and modern pollen assemblages. The results show that taxon-specific responses to the climate variables display a wide regional diversity and that the climate variables with low collinearity that best account for the spatial variability of modern pollen assemblages differ regionally. PANN is the most important variable in northwestern and northeastern China and the Tibetan Plateau, while MTWA and MTCO are the dominant variables in east-central and southern China. This suggests that the climate variables that can be optimally reconstructed from fossil pollen data vary in different bioclimatic regions of China. This feature is typical to many continental-scale modern pollen datasets and needs to be considered in pollen-based climate reconstructions.

Central China has experienced stronger summer monsoon during warm periods such as Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1 and 3, and weaker summer monsoon during cool periods such as MIS 2. The evolution history of Dajiuhu subalpine peatland in central China can help investigate how the expansion and shrinkage of peatland were associated with monsoonal strength over the last glacial–interglacial cycle. Here we apply bulk organic carbon and molecular biomarkers (hopane and n-alkane) to reconstruct the evolution history for the Dajiuhu peatland over the past 40,000 yr. The results indicate fluctuations between lacustrine and peat-like deposition during MIS 3, steady lacustrine deposition during MIS 2, and peatland initiation and expansion during MIS 1 in the Dajiuhu peatland. Therefore, at the glacial–interglacial scale, warmer summer and cooler winter conditions in interglacial periods are crucial to trigger peat deposition, whereas reduced evaporation in glacial period instead of decreased monsoonal-driven precipitation would have played a predominant role in the regional effective moisture balance. However, within the Holocene (MIS 1), monsoonal precipitation changes appear to be the main controller on millennial-scale variations of water-table level of the Dajiuhu peatland.

Carnitine has been reported to improve growth performance and reduce body lipid content in fish. Thus, we hypothesised that carnitine supplementation can improve growth performance and reduce lipid content in the liver and muscle of yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco), a commonly cultured freshwater fish in inland China, and tested this hypothesis in the present study. Diets containing l-carnitine at three different concentrations of 47 mg/kg (control, without extra carnitine addition), 331 mg/kg (low carnitine) and 3495 mg/kg (high carnitine) diet were fed to yellow catfish for 8 weeks. The low-carnitine diet significantly improved weight gain (WG) and reduced the feed conversion ratio (FCR). In contrast, the high-carnitine diet did not affect WG and FCR. Compared with the control diet, the low-carnitine and high-carnitine diets increased lipid and carnitine contents in the liver and muscle. The increased lipid content in the liver could be attributed to the up-regulation of the mRNA levels of SREBP, PPARγ, fatty acid synthase (FAS) and ACCa and the increased activities of lipogenic enzymes (such as FAS, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme) and to the down-regulation of the mRNA levels of the lipolytic gene CPT1A. The increased lipid content in muscle could be attributed to the down-regulation of the mRNA levels of the lipolytic genes CPT1A and ATGL and the increased activity of lipoprotein lipase. In conclusion, in contrast to our hypothesis, dietary carnitine supplementation increased body lipid content in yellow catfish.