The Nd-doped yttria and lanthanum yttrium oxide transparent ceramics were fabricated and their spectroscopic properties were investigated. Compared with Nd:Y2O3, all absorption bands of ...2%Nd:(Y0.9La0.1)2O3 are broadened. The full width of half-maximum (FWHM) at 806 nm is about 8 nm and the absorption cross-section is 1.742 X 10-20 cm2. According to the Judd-Ofelt theory, its emission cross-section at 1079 nm is 3.378 X 10-20 cm2 and the measured fluorescence lifetime (taus) is 98.4 mus.
With the rapid development of the global electronics industry, waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) has become one of the world's fastest growing waste streams. Exploring an environmentally sound ...treatment for this abundant and multi-component waste is critical to its sustainable development. This study has been aimed to cover thermochemical conversion of WPCBs (combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal process), focusing on thermal behavior, reaction kinetics, pollutant evolution and corresponding controlling strategies, with the aim of promoting circular economic development and building a sustainable future for the electronics industry.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) models are conventionally established with a set of parameters identified under steady-state operating conditions. However, such an approach is insufficient ...to accurately capture the dynamic characteristics of multi-parameter changes in real-world scenarios. This paper develops a semi-empirical model for a 110-kW commercial PEMFC system based on its dynamic operation data to remedy the defects. To improve the fitting accuracy of the semi-empirical PEMFC model, an improved grey wolf optimization (IGWO) algorithm is proposed for model parameter identification. The IGWO algorithm adopts chaotic mapping to optimize the initial population distribution, and a random walk strategy is incorporated to boost the local search ability of the traditional grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm. The effectiveness of this IGWO algorithm in optimizing the semi-empirical model is experimentally verified on the 110-kW PEMFC system under highly dynamic operating conditions. Results show that the proposed IGWO algorithm can effectively identify the semi-empirical model’s parameters, establishing a stable and robust model that outperforms those based on traditional metaheuristic algorithms such as GWO, particle swarm optimization, and genetic algorithm. The demonstrated improvement renders it as better suited for optimizing PEMFC semi-empirical models under real-world operating conditions.
•Dynamic operating conditions.•Improved grey wolf optimization method.•Chaotic mapping and random walk strategy.
Clinopodium chinense Kuntze (CC), traditional Chinese medicine with anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrheal, and hemostatic activities, has been used to treat dysentery and bleeding diseases for thousands ...of years, which are similar to the symptoms of ulcerative colitis (UC).
To obtain a novel treatment for UC, an integrated strategy was developed in this study to investigate the effect and mechanism of CC against UC.
The chemical characterization of CC was scanned by UPLC-MS/MS. Network pharmacology analysis was performed to predict the active ingredients and pharmacological mechanisms of CC against UC. Further, the results of network pharmacology were validated using LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells and DSS-induced UC mice. The production of pro-inflammatory mediators and biochemical parameters was tested using the ELISA kits. The expression of NF-κB, COX-2, and iNOS proteins was evaluated using Western blot analysis. Body weight, disease activity index, colon length, histopathological examination, and metabolomics analysis in colon tissues were carried out to confirm the effect and mechanism of CC.
Based on the chemical characterization and literature collection, a rich database of ingredients in CC was constructed. Network pharmacology analysis provided five core components as well as revealed that the mechanism of CC against UC was highly related to inflammation, especially the NF-κB signaling pathway. In vitro experiments showed CC could inhibit inflammation by LPS-TLR4-NF-κB-iNOS/COX-2 signaling pathway in RAW264.7 cells. Meanwhile, in vivo experimental results proved that CC significantly alleviated pathological features with increased body weight and colonic length, decreased DAI and oxidative damage, as well as mediated inflammatory factors like NO, PGE2, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-ɑ. In addition, colon metabolomics analysis revealed CC could restore the abnormal endogenous metabolite levels in UC. 18 screened biomarkers were further enriched in four pathways including Arachidonic acid metabolism, Histidine metabolism, Alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism as well as the Pentose phosphate pathway.
This study demonstrates that CC could alleviate UC by reducing systematic inflammation and regulating metabolism, which is beneficial for providing scientific data for the development of UC treatment.
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•The predicted mechanism of CC against UC was highly related to inflammation.•CC inhibited inflammation by TLR4-NF-κB-iNOS/COX-2 signaling pathway.•CC alleviated the clinical symptoms and histopathological damage in UC mice.•CC regulated oxidative stress and inflammatory mediators levels in UC mice.•CC restored levels of metabolites changed in UC mice.
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•A closed-loop system coupling with AD, pyrolysis and adsorption was established.•More than 95% of antibiotics and benzenes in actual liquid digestate were removed.•80.5% of C and ...94.7% of N in pig manure was effectively recovered and recycled.•The system enabled clean biogas production and safe biofertiliser recycling.
Anaerobic digestion of livestock manure as a carbon-negative practice yields bioenergy and biofertilizer. However, substantial antibiotics and benzenes contained in liquid and solid digestate hinder its large-scale applications. In this study, a novel closed-loop treatment strategy was proposed to integrate the synthesis benefits of anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis of solid digestate, and adsorption. The solid digestate-derived biochar (S-biochar) was successfully prepared by coupling pyrolysis and H2SO4 activation. The S-biochar possessed a polycyclic aromatic structure, abundant micropores (0.8–1.0 nm), various functional groups (–COOH, Aro–OH), and a higher absolute zeta potential value. These characteristics contributed to the excellent adsorption of tetracycline (51.3 mg/L), oxytetracycline (32.9 mg/L), benzene (86.0 mg/L) and toluene (74.1 mg/L), wherein pore filling, electrostatic interactions, H-bonding, surface partition, and π-π conjugation mechanisms were involved. The adsorption of antibiotics was more sensitive to pH, in comparison with benzenes, and displayed a declining trend (pH>7). Under actual liquid digestate conditions, >95% adsorption of antibiotics and benzenes were reached at the dosage of 1.5 g/L, in a company with >80% of nitrogen and phosphorus. In the end, a carbon and nitrogen flow analysis was performed to elucidate that more than 80% of carbon in pig manure can be settled as biochar and biogas, and up to 94.7% of nitrogen remained in the biochar and liquid digestate. This study not only developed a S-biochar with excellent performance in removing organic pollutants from liquid digestate, but also established a closed-loop strategy as an alternative carbon sequestration approach using anaerobic digestion side-products.
The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of thrips is characterized by the presence of control region (CR) duplication. However, the evolution pattern of duplicated CRs in thrips is still unclear. In ...this study, the multiple independent origins of duplicated CR indicated that the CR duplication was not an ancestral state for Thysanoptera. The macroevolutionary pattern suggested that the earliest CR duplication event occurred in the middle Cretaceous (94.85 Ma) coincided with rearrangement events forming the ancestors of Aeolothripidae, but much later than that forming the ancestors of the suborder Terebrantia. The mitogenome with duplicated CRs showed a higher rate of gene rearrangement. The sequence similarity of the CR copies and divergence time were negatively correlated, indicating age‐related deterioration of mitochondrial function. No significant differences were found in the mitochondrial DNA, the P123 and P4FD between the single and multiple‐CR charactered mitogenomes, which suggested that the duplicated CRs may not affect the replication process in thrip mitogenome. The mitogenomes with duplicated CRs (mean: 0.0088 subs/s/my) show a significantly increased evolutionary rate than that with a single one (mean: 0.0058 subs/s/my). However, it seems that this higher evolutionary rate did not have adaptive mechanisms in Terebrantia. We speculated that the duplicated CRs may cause a more intense production of energy by mitochondria, and an accelerated mutation and substitution rate is expected in such mitogenomes. Our study provided new insights into the presence of CR duplications and their evolution in the mitogenomes of thrips.
The multiple independent origins of the duplicated control region (CR) indicated that the CR duplication was not an ancestral state for Thysanoptera.
The duplicated CRs may cause a more intense production of energy by mitochondria, and an accelerated mutation and substitution rate is expected in such mitogenomes.
Research Highlights
The control region (CR) duplication is an apomorphic state for the thrips.
The earliest CR duplication occurred in the middle Cretaceous and coincided with gene rearrangement events.
The CR duplications that diverged earlier have a lower similarity.
The mitogenomes with duplicated CRs show a significantly increased rate of sequence evolution and gene arrangement.
Microbial-derived metabolites play important roles in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, yet how intestinal microbes influence AD progression remains uncertain. Xanthoceraside (XAN), a triterpenoid ...saponin with anti-AD activity, was extracted from the husks of Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge. However, it is still unclear that how XAN modulates the gut microbiota community to regulate AD progression through changing the levels of microbial-derived metabolites.
In this study, we investigated the mechanism underlying the anti-AD effect of XAN.
The current combination studies of multiple-targeted metabolomics, natural product chemistry and pharmacology revealed that oral XAN mediated intestinal microbiota to ameliorate Aβ1–42-induced learning and memory deficits in rats, which were confirmed through antibiotic treatments and fecal microbiota transplantation.
As a poor water solubility and low permeability compound that hardly be absorbed into blood–brain barrier, XAN significantly regulated Aβ1–42-induced metabolism disorders directly or indirectly in gut, including neurotransmitters, amino acids, bile acids and SCFAs metabolism that were detected by UHPLC-MS/MS and GC–MS/MS. In particularly, the in vitro evaluation of XAN on SCFAs production not only found a striking increase in the production of SCFAs after fermentation, but revealed the inner relationship among XAN, gut microbiota and SCFAs in vivo. All results demonstrated that XAN could improve AD rats' learning and memory deficits by modulating the community of gut microbiota which was connected through 16S rRNA sequencing and CCA analyses.
Our study provided a novel mechanism for developing XAN as a potential anti-AD drug and revealed that the gut microbiota might be a potential target for AD treatment .
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Transparent 1at% Nd3+:Y1.9La0.1O3 ceramics were fabricated with nanopowders prepared by carbonate coprecipitation method. The powder compacts were sintered in H2 atmosphere at 1550°C for 30h. The ...Nd3+:Y1.9La0.1O3 ceramics display uniform grains of about 50μm and high transparency. The highest transmittance of the ceramics reaches 67%. The strongest absorption peak is in the wavelength of 820nm with absorption cross section of 2.48×10−20cm2. The absorption is still high at LD wavelength 806nm with absorption cross section of 1.78×10−20cm2 and broad full width at half maximum (FWHM) of about 6.3nm. The strongest emission peak was centered at 1078nm with large stimulated emission cross section of 9.63×10−20cm2 and broad FWHM of about 7.8nm. The broad absorption and emission bandwidth of Nd3+:Y1.9La0.1O3 transparent ceramics are favorable to achieve the miniaturized LD pumping apparatus and ultrashort modelocked pulse laser output, respectively.
Chemical chlorination is an effective method to control the emitter bio-clogging in drip irrigation using reclaimed water, but the broad spectrum of strong oxidative bactericidal action of chlorine ...causes certain risks to soil microbial communities and even soil health. Therefore, in this study, spring maize was selected as the research object, field chlorine experiments with drip irrigation using reclaimed water were carried out in two years, high-throughput sequencing technology combined with phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) technology was used, the biological bio-indicator of soil health (microbial community structure of soil) in the root zone of the spring maize were systematically studied on the effects of different chlorination modes under the drip irrigation using reclaimed water. The effects of microbial community structure on soil enzyme activity and spring maize yield and quality were analyzed. The results showed that the total amount of PLFAs and bacteria content significantly decreased by 17.7 %–44.7 % and 7.0 %–47.3 %, which reduced the microbial community diversity. The relative abundance of Nitrospirae, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes decreased at the phylum level. The changes of microbial community structure reduced urease, catalase and phosphatase activities, inhibited the conversion and absorption of nutrients in the soil, which led to a decrease in crude fat and protein by 2.2 %–16.6 % and 2.2 %–14.1 %, respectively. But the yield of spring maize didn't significantly reduce. In comparison, long-term use of high concentration short duration chlorination mode was more likely to have adverse effects on soil health than low concentration long duration chlorination mode. The research results can provide a reference for the management of reclaimed water network systems and soil health.
•Soil microorganism was quantified after drip irrigation using reclaimed water.•The mechanism of microbial community structure changed on maize yield and quality was revealed.•High concentration + short duration of chlorination was risky for soil health.
