The granulosa cells (GCs) of birds are essential for the reproduction and maintenance of populations in nature. Atrazine (ATR) is a potent endocrine disruptor that can interfere with reproductive ...function in females and Diaminochlorotriazine (DACT) is the primary metabolite of ATR in the organism. Melatonin (MT) is an endogenous hormone with antioxidant properties that plays a crucial role in development of animal germ cells. However, how ATR causes mitochondrial dysfunction, abnormal secretion of steroid hormones, and whether MT prevents ATR-induced female reproductive toxicity remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the protective effect of MT against ATR-induced female reproduction. In the present study, the GCs of quail were divided into 6 groups, as follows: C (Serum-free medium), MT (10 µM MT), A250 (250 µM ATR), MA250 (10 µM MT+250 µM ATR), D200 (200 µM DACT) and MD200 (10 µM MT+200 µM DACT), and were cultured for 24 h. The results revealed that ATR prevented GCs proliferation and decreased cell differentiation. ATR caused oxidative damage and mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to disruption of steroid synthesis, which posed a severe risk to GC's function. However, MT supplements reversed these changes. Mechanistically, our study exhibited that the ROS/SIRT1/STAR axis as a target for MT to ameliorate ATR-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and steroid disorders in GCs, which provides new insights into the role of MT in ATR-induced reproductive capacity and species conservation in birds.
Silicon has been considered as one of the most promising high-capacity anode materials because of its environmentally friendly character, natural abundance, and attractive operating voltage. However, ...successful implementation of Si-based anodes in Li-ion batteries is seriously hindered by their huge volume variation and low electric conductivity. The rational design of Si and effective combination of nanosized Si with carbonaceous materials represent the most effective approaches to overcome the challenges towards practical application of Si-based anodes. In this review, the mechanisms of Li–Si alloying and cell failure are briefly analyzed to comprehend the inherent impediments of Si-based anodes. Furthermore, nano-structured Si materials are summarized and nano/micro-structured Si/C and SiO
x
/C composites with 3D conductive networks and stable interfaces are discussed in detail. Accessory battery components that influence electrochemical performance are also reviewed. As for practical application, full batteries with Si-based anodes are discussed. Finally, the key aspects of Si-based materials are emphasized and prospective strategies for promoting the practical applications of Si-based anodes in high energy density Li-ion batteries are proposed.
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (ERCO2) to low-carbon fuel and useful chemicals, which can simultaneously store renewable energy and recover CO2 in a green manner, has proven to be a ...viable energy storage and conversion strategy. However, there is always a technical bottleneck in preparation of highly active, selective and stable catalysts. In this work, we hydrothermally synthesized a new type of bismuth-based organic framework (Bi–MOF) and carefully investigated it as the catalyst for ERCO2. All the samples exhibited excellent performance and the optimized one (i.e. Bi-BTC-D) achieved a high formate Faraday efficiency (FE) up to 95.5% at −0.86 VRHE and a current density of −11.2 mA cm−2. Moreover, the FE has been maintained over 90.0% after 12 hours of continuous electrolysis without significant reduction. The measurement results demonstrated that the excellent performance can be attributed to the special structure of Bi-BTC-D. DFT calculations show that the Bi site of Bi-BTC-D is highly efficient for formate production with very low overpotentials. The great potential of using a Bi–MOF as a highly stable, molecularly tunable catalytic material for ERCO2 is confirmed.
Clear decadal variations exist in the predictability of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with the most recent decade having the lowest ENSO predictability in the past six decades. The ...Bjerknes Feedback (BF) intensity, which dominates the development of ENSO, has been proposed to determine ENSO predictability. Here we demonstrate that decadal variations in BF intensity are largely a result of the sensitivity of the zonal winds to the zonal sea level pressure (SLP) gradient in the equatorial Pacific. Furthermore, the results show that during low‐ENSO predictability decades, zonal wind anomalies over the equatorial Pacific are more linked to SLP variations in the off‐equatorial Pacific, which can then transfer this information into surface temperature and precipitation fields through the BF, suggesting a weakening in the ocean‐atmosphere coupling in the tropical Pacific. This result indicates that more attention should be paid to off‐equatorial processes in the prediction of ENSO.
Key Points
The strength of Bjerknes feedback acts to modulate the decadal variability of ENSO predictability
Decadal variation in Bjerknes feedback strength relies on the wind‐to‐SLP‐gradient sensitivity
Off‐equatorial physical processes should be paid more attention in low‐ENSO predictability period
Li2CO3 is the cathodic discharge product of a Li-CO2/O2 battery and is difficult to electrochemically decompose. The accumulation of Li2CO3 leads to battery degradation and results in a short ...lifespan. Herein, a carbon nanotube supported Ru/NiO@Ni catalyst (Ru/NiO@Ni/CNT) is synthesized with Ru nanoparticles (∼2.5 nm) anchored on the surface of core–shell structure NiO@Ni nanoparticles (∼17 nm). We found strong interfacial interactions between Ru nanoparticles and NiO. XRD and XPS analysis revealed that the presence of Ru could protect the Ni species from being deeply oxidized while the NiO species could modify the local electronic structure of Ru, inducing a higher oxidation state. When such a Ru/NiO@Ni/CNT catalyst is used as a cathode in Li-CO2/O2 (v:v = 4:1) batteries, a long cycling life of 105 cycles at a cutoff capacity of 1000 mAh g–1 with an overpotential as low as 1.01 V was achieved, which is significantly better than 75 and 44 cycles with Ru/CNT and NiO@Ni/CNT catalysts, respectively, and confirms the strong synergetic effect between the Ru and NiO species in the electrocatalytic decomposition of Li2CO3. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the electrochemical decomposition of Li2CO3 with the assistance of RuO2 indicates that the formation of O2 is the rate-determining step. In addition, the formation and decomposition process of Li2CO3 was illuminated at a molecular level by in situ FTIR spectroscopy with Ru/NiO@Ni/CNT catalysts.
Cadmium (Cd) is widespread globally in the environment as a toxic metal. Although it is well known to induce hepatotoxicity in the cells, defense mechanisms against the detrimental effects of Cd are ...still unknown. We examined the role of autophagy (a cellular defense mechanism) on Cd-induced cytotoxicity in bird hepatocytes. Primary chicken hepatocytes were cultured with different concentrations (0, 1, 2.5, 5, and 10 μM) of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) for 12 h. We assessed the effects of CdCl2 on the cell viability, antioxidant status, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, autophagy response and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Further, it is also evaluated that insight into underling molecular mechanisms involved in the study. In this study, CdCl2-induce hepatotoxicity was caused by drastically increased ROS generation as well as a reduction level of antioxidant enzymes. It was also demonstrated that marked activation of ER stress markers (GRP78, IRE1, PERK, ATF4, ATF6 and XBP-1 s) was observed. Simultaneously, increased activation of autophagy in low-dose CdCl2 (1 μM) exposed group was observed, but high-dose CdCl2 (10 μM) inhibited autophagy and significantly promoted apoptosis, as indicated by the expression of the autophagy related genes for P62, Beclin-1, ATG3, ATG5, ATG9, and the detection of autophagic vacuoles. Pretreatment with autophagy agonist Rapamycin (RAP) has successfully reduced ROS production, attenuated ER stress and enhanced hepatocytes viability, while the autophagy inhibitor 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) had the opposite effect. Hence, these findings stipulate that Cd could inhibit viability of hepatocytes in a dose-dependent manner. Autophagy relieves hepatotoxicity of Cd via reducing ROS generation and regulating ER stress. We identified autophagy as a novel protective mechanism involved in Cd-mediated chicken hepatotoxicity.
Display omitted
•Cadmium indued autophagy and apoptosis in chicken hepatocytes.•Redox homeostasis disruption and ER stress was involved toxicity of Cadmium.•Autophagy relieves hepatotoxicity of Cadmium by relieving oxidative stress and ER stress.
Abstract
Micron-sized Si anode promises a much higher theoretical capacity than the traditional graphite anode and more attractive application prospect compared to its nanoscale counterpart. However, ...its severe volume expansion during lithiation requires solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with reinforced mechanical stability. Here, we propose a solvent-induced selective dissolution strategy to in situ regulate the mechanical properties of SEI. By introducing a high-donor-number solvent, gamma-butyrolactone, into conventional electrolytes, low-modulus components of the SEI, such as Li alkyl carbonates, can be selectively dissolved upon cycling, leaving a robust SEI mainly consisting of lithium fluoride and polycarbonates. With this strategy, raw micron-sized Si anode retains 87.5% capacity after 100 cycles at 0.5 C (1500 mA g
−1
, 25°C), which can be improved to >300 cycles with carbon-coated micron-sized Si anode. Furthermore, the Si||LiNi
0.8
Co
0.1
Mn
0.1
O
2
battery using the raw micron-sized Si anode with the selectively dissolved SEI retains 83.7% capacity after 150 cycles at 0.5 C (90 mA g
−1
). The selective dissolution effect for tailoring the SEI, as well as the corresponding cycling life of the Si anodes, is positively related to the donor number of the solvents, which highlights designing high-donor-number electrolytes as a guideline to tailor the SEI for stabilizing volume-changing alloying-type anodes in high-energy rechargeable batteries.
By exciting subtropical teleconnections, sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) during boreal spring can trigger El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in ...the following boreal winter, thereby providing a precursor for ENSO predictability. However, this NTA-ENSO connection is not stationary, and it varies considerably over multidecadal timescales, which cannot be directly explained by the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation or the global warming trend. Here we show that multidecadal changes in the NTA-ENSO connection are principally controlled by multidecadal variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). During the positive phase of the NAO, the amplification of the NTA impact on ENSO mainly arises from strengthening of the boreal spring mean precipitation over the equatorial Atlantic and enhancement of the persistence of NTA SST anomalies, which enhance the NTA influence by exciting stronger and more persistent subtropical teleconnections. Our findings show that multidecadal variability of the NAO is key to understanding the impacts of the NTA SST on the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Abstract
Extensive research has improved our understanding and forecast of the occurrence, evolution and global impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, ENSO changes as the global ...climate warms up and it exhibits different characteristics and climate impacts in the twenty-first century from the twentieth century. Climate models project that ENSO will also change in the warming future and have not reached an agreement about the flavor, as to the intensity and the frequency, of future ENSO conditions. This article presents the conventional view of ENSO properties, dynamics and teleconnections, and reviews the emerging understanding of the diversity and associated climate impacts of ENSO. It also reviews the results from investigations into the possible changes in ENSO under the future global-warming scenarios.
Carbon-based electrodes play important roles in constructing efficient capacitive deionization (CDI) devices. Therefore, the rational design of carbon materials with optimized structure, composition, ...and morphology is crucial for further improving the CDI performance. Herein, a novel N, P co-doped eave-like hierarchical porous carbon (NP-EHPC) for CDI is reported. To prepare the NP-EHPC, the core-shell ZIF-8@AF particles are first prepared through the kinetically-controlled growth of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and polymerization of
p
-aminophenol and formaldehyde (AF), followed by subsequent pyrolysis and post-doping with phosphorus. Owing to the unique eave-like morphology, presence of abundant mesopores, and co-doping of P and N, the NP-EHPC exhibits a high desalination capacity of 24.14 mg g
−1
in 500 mg L
−1
NaCl solution at 1.2 V and long cycling stability of over 150 cycles. Moreover, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation results reveal that the co-doping of N and P atoms can greatly enhance the binding energies for Na and Cl atoms and lead to superior electrosorption capacity. This work provides a new insight into the design of high-performance carbon materials for the desalination of brackish water.
Novel nitrogen, phosphorus co-doped eave-like hierarchical porous carbon prepared from a metal-organic framework (MOF) precursor shows outstanding capacitive deionization performance.
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