The mechanisms of species coexistence within a community have always been the focus in ecological research. Community phylogenetic structure reflects the relationship of historical processes, ...regional environments, and interactions between species, and studying it is imperative to understand the formation and maintenance mechanisms of community composition and biodiversity. We studied the phylogenetic structure of the shrub communities in arid and semiarid areas of the Mongolian Plateau. First, the phylogenetic signals of four plant traits (height, canopy, leaf length, and leaf width) of shrubs and subshrubs were measured to determine the phylogenetic conservation of these traits. Then, the net relatedness index (NRI) of shrub communities was calculated to characterize their phylogenetic structure. Finally, the relationship between the NRI and current climate and paleoclimate (since the Last Glacial Maximum, LGM) factors was analyzed to understand the formation and maintenance mechanisms of these plant communities. We found that desert shrub communities showed a trend toward phylogenetic overdispersion; that is, limiting similarity was predominant in arid and semiarid areas of the Mongolian Plateau despite the phylogenetic structure and formation mechanisms differing across habitats. The typical desert and sandy shrub communities showed a significant phylogenetic overdispersion, while the steppified desert shrub communities showed a weak phylogenetic clustering. It was found that mean winter temperature (i.e., in the driest quarter) was the major factor limiting steppified desert shrub phylogeny distribution. Both cold and drought (despite having opposite consequences) differentiated the typical desert to steppified desert shrub communities. The increase in temperature since the LGM is conducive to the invasion of shrub plants into steppe grassland, and this process may be intensified by global warming.
Limiting similarity rather than habitat filtering is the main mechanism of community composition in temperate arid and semiarid areas desert. Low temperature is the main factor limiting shrub phylogeny distribution.
A series of Ca doped Ce–Ti oxides prepared by a single step sol–gel method were investigated for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH
3
. The results show that Ca doping had both positive ...and negative effects on the activities of Ce–Ti oxide. Ca
0.1
CT possessed the best catalytic activity and widest temperature window. Further investigations on BET, XRD, XPS, H
2
-TPR and NH
3
-TPD demonstrated that the good SCR performance of Ca
0.1
CT could be attributed to the increase in the amount of Ce
3+
and surface adsorbed oxygen as well as the enhancement of Brønsted acidity and redox ability. In addition, the good dispersion of active Ce species, the alleviation of support sintering, and the interaction among Ce, Ti and Ca species were also responsible for its enhanced activity.
Graphical Abstract
6-Gingerol, the main active ingredient in ginger, exhibits a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities, and can affect cell development. ...However, the effects of 6-gingerol on mammalian reproductive processes, especially early embryonic development, are unclear. This study explored whether 6-gingerol can be used to improve the quality of in vitro-cultured porcine embryos. The results showed that 5 μM 6-gingerol significantly increased the blastocyst formation rates of porcine early embryos. 6-Gingerol attenuated intracellular reactive oxygen species accumulation and autophagy, increased intracellular glutathione levels, and increased mitochondrial activity. In addition, 6-gingerol upregulated
, SRY-box transcription factor 2, cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase, and RPTOR independent companion of MTOR complex 2 while downregulating Caspase 3, baculoviral IAP repeat containing 5, autophagy related 12, and Beclin 1. Most importantly, 6-gingerol significantly increased the levels of p-extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 while reducing the levels of p-c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1/2/3 and p-p38. These results indicate that 6-gingerol can promote the development of porcine early embryos in vitro.
Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (
), or guanosine triphosphatase
, is a proto-oncogene that encodes the small guanosine triphosphatase transductor protein. Previous studies have found that
...can promote cytokine secretion, cell chemotaxis, and survival. However, its effects on milk fat synthesis in bovine mammary epithelial cells are unclear. In this study, the effects of
inhibition on cell metabolism, autophagy, oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial function, and lipid composition as well as the potential mechanisms were detected in an immortalized dairy cow mammary epithelial cell line (MAC-T). The results showed that inhibition of
changed the lipid composition (especially the triglyceride level), mitochondrial functions, autophagy, and endoplasmic reticulum stress in cells. Moreover,
inhibition regulated the levels of the mammalian target of rapamycin and mitogen-activated protein kinase (extracellular regulated protein kinases, c-Jun N-terminal kinases, p38) activation. These results indicated that regulation of
would affect the synthesis and composition of milk fat. These results are also helpful for exploring the synthesis and secretion of milk fat at the molecular level and provide a theoretical basis for improving the percentage of fat in milk and the yield of milk from cows.
Although vegetation community information such as grazing gradient, biomass, and density have been well characterized in typical grassland communities with Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis as ...dominant species, their impact on the soil moisture (SM) inversion is still unclear. This study investigated the characteristics of a grassland vegetation community at different grazing gradients and growing seasons and its impact on SM inversion using remote sensing data. The water cloud model (WCM) was used for SM inversion, and both field and remote sensing data collected from 2019 to 2021 were used for calibration and prediction. The study found that the calibrated WCM achieved prediction results of SM inversion with average R2 values of 0.41 and 0.38 at different grazing gradients and growing seasons, respectively. Vegetation biomass and height were significantly correlated with vegetation indexes, and the highest model prediction accuracy was achieved for biomass and height around 121.1 g/m2 102.3–139.9 and 18.6 cm 17.3–19.8, respectively. Generally, NDWI1 produced higher SM estimation accuracy than NDWI2. The growing season of vegetation also affects the accuracy of the WCM to retrieve SM, with the highest accuracy achieved in mid-growing season I. Therefore, the developed WCM with optimal height and biomass of vegetation communities can enhance the SM prediction capacity; it thus can be potentially used for SM prediction in typical grasslands.
RNA functions, including the regulation of various cellular activities, seem to be closely related to its structure. However, accurately predicting RNA secondary structures can be difficult. ...Structural prediction can be achieved by selecting stem areas that are suitable and compatible from stem pools. Here, we propose a method for predicting the secondary structure of non-coding RNA based on stem region substitution, which we named RSRNA. This method is compatible with nested RNA secondary structures, while reducing any randomness. Our algorithm had higher performance and prediction accuracy than other algorithms, which deems it more effective for future RNA structure studies.
The effect of HCl on a CeO
2
-MoO
3
/TiO
2
catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH
3
was investigated with BET, XRD, NH
3
-TPD, H
2
-TPR, XPS and catalytic activity measurements. ...The results showed that HCl had an inhibiting effect on the activity of the CeO
2
-MoO
3
/TiO
2
catalyst. The deactivation by HCl of the CeO
2
-MoO
3
/TiO
2
catalyst could be attributed to pore blockage, weakened interaction among ceria, molybdenum and titania, reduction in surface acidity and degradation of redox ability. The Ce
3+
/Ce
4+
redox cycle was damaged because unreactive Ce
3+
in the form of CeCl
3
lost the ability to be converted to active Ce
4+
in the SCR reaction. In addition, a decrease in the amount of chemisorbed oxygen and the concentrations of surface Ce and Mo was also responsible for the deactivation by HCl of the CeO
2
-MoO
3
/TiO
2
catalyst.
The effect of HCl on a CeO
2
-MoO
3
/TiO
2
catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH
3
.
A series of Ca doped Ce-Ti oxides prepared by a single step sol-gel method were investigated for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH.sub.3. The results show that Ca doping had both ...positive and negative effects on the activities of Ce-Ti oxide. Ca.sub.0.1CT possessed the best catalytic activity and widest temperature window. Further investigations on BET, XRD, XPS, H.sub.2-TPR and NH.sub.3-TPD demonstrated that the good SCR performance of Ca.sub.0.1CT could be attributed to the increase in the amount of Ce.sup.3+ and surface adsorbed oxygen as well as the enhancement of Brønsted acidity and redox ability. In addition, the good dispersion of active Ce species, the alleviation of support sintering, and the interaction among Ce, Ti and Ca species were also responsible for its enhanced activity.
The effect of HCl on a CeO
-MoO
/TiO
catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH
was investigated with BET, XRD, NH
-TPD, H
-TPR, XPS and catalytic activity measurements. The results ...showed that HCl had an inhibiting effect on the activity of the CeO
-MoO
/TiO
catalyst. The deactivation by HCl of the CeO
-MoO
/TiO
catalyst could be attributed to pore blockage, weakened interaction among ceria, molybdenum and titania, reduction in surface acidity and degradation of redox ability. The Ce
/Ce
redox cycle was damaged because unreactive Ce
in the form of CeCl
lost the ability to be converted to active Ce
in the SCR reaction. In addition, a decrease in the amount of chemisorbed oxygen and the concentrations of surface Ce and Mo was also responsible for the deactivation by HCl of the CeO
-MoO
/TiO
catalyst.
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