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This study addressed the kinetics characteristics and pyrolysis behavior of waste industrial lignin in a thermogravimetric analyzer. DAEM and Coats-Redfern integration methods were employed to evaluate the kinetic parameters at varying heating rates (10–30 °C/min). The physicochemical inspection showed that the industrial lignin had excellent prospects to produce finest chemicals. The TGA results illustrated that the pyrolysis process of industrial lignin could be divided into three stages, including the water loss stage, massive decomposition stage (255–376℃), and charring stage (392–508℃). The activation energies calculated by DAEM are 12.7–23.9 kJ/mol as V/V* rose and 21–27 kJ/mol by the Coats-Redfern integration method of different pyrolysis stages. In addition, the average activation energy of the massive decomposition stage was higher than that of the charring stage. The similar activation energies calculated by both DAEM and Coats-Redfern methods confirmed the accuracy of the kinetic calculations.

Accurate measurement of the transverse beam-profile is critical to analyzing the performance of the electron storage ring light sources. In this paper, a two-dimensional interferometer using the spatial coherence of the synchrotron radiation is developed to measure the transverse beam-profile of Hefei Light Source-II (HLS-II). On the B7 beamline, the transverse beam-profile of this light source point was measured by the interference fringes of Synchrotron Radiation (SR) with wavelength of 500 nm. Under the normal top-off operation mode of HLS-II, the horizontal and vertical beam sizes measured by the interferometer are $291.9\pm 1.6\ \mu\mathrm{m}$ and $241.3\pm 0.9\ \mu\mathrm{m}$, respectively. At the same time, the effect of beam intensity on the transverse beam-profile was also investigated. The interferometer measurement system we designed satisfies the real-time online monitoring of the transverse beam-profile in the top-off operation mode of HLS-II.

Existing image and video denoising algorithms have focused on removing homogeneous Gaussian noise. However, this assumption with noise modeling is often too simplistic for the characteristics of real-world noise. Moreover, the design of network architectures in most deep learning-based video denoising methods is heuristic, ignoring valuable domain knowledge. In this paper, we propose a model-guided deep unfolding network for the more challenging and realistic mixed noise video denoising problem, named DU-MVDnet. First, we develop a novel observation model/likelihood function based on the correlations among adjacent degraded frames. In the framework of Bayesian deep learning, we introduce a deep image denoiser prior and obtain an iterative optimization algorithm based on the maximum a posterior (MAP) estimation. To facilitate end-to-end optimization, the iterative algorithm is transformed into a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based implementation. Furthermore, recognizing the limitations of traditional motion estimation and compensation methods, we propose an efficient multistage recursive fusion strategy to exploit temporal dependencies. Specifically, we divide video frames into several overlapping groups and progressively integrate these frames into one frame. Toward this objective, we implement a multiframe adaptive aggregation operation to integrate feature maps of intragroup with those of intergroup frames. Extensive experimental results on different video test datasets have demonstrated that the proposed model-guided deep network outperforms current state-of-the-art video denoising algorithms such as FastDVDnet and MAP-VDNet.

The direct electrolytic splitting of abundant seawater instead of scarce freshwater is an ideal strategy for producing clean and renewable hydrogen (H2) fuels. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a vital half-reaction that occurs during electrochemical seawater splitting. However, OER suffers from sluggish four-electron transfer kinetics and competitive chlorine evolution reactions in seawater. Noble metal-based catalysts such as IrO2and RuO2are considered to have state-of-the-art OER electrocatalytic activity, but the low reserves and high prices of these noble metals significantly limit their large-scale application. Recently, efforts have been made to explore efficient, robust, and anti-chlorine-corrosion non-noble-metal OER electrocatalysts for seawater splitting such as oxides, hydroxides, phosphides, nitrides, chalcogenides, alloys, and composites. An in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of seawater electrolysis and the design principle of electrode materials is important for promoting seawater-splitting technology. In this review, we first introduce fundamental reactions in seawater electrolytes. Subsequently, construction strategies for OER electrocatalysts for seawater splitting are introduced. Finally, present challenges and perspectives regarding non-noble-metal OER electrocatalysts for commercial H2production by seawater splitting are discussed.

Electrochemically converting nitrate ions back to valuable ammonia (NH3) represents a sustainable alternative to the traditional Haber-Bosch process. However, NH3electrosynthesis is currently restricted by the low catalytic activities and Faradaic efficiency (FE) of NO3−-to-NH3. Here we report an interlayer-confined nitrate reduction reaction (NTRR) in a two-dimensional layered structure. The results indicate that in situelectrochemical K+intercalation expands the interlayer spacing, which triggers the NTRR between layers. The obtained α-Ni0.902Cu0.098(OH)2ultrathin nanosheets deliver high NTRR performance with an NH3yield rate of 13.4 mol gcat.−1h−1and O3−-to-NH3FE of 98.9% at −0.6 V, far exceeding those of Cu-based electrocatalysts. Moreover, the catalyst exhibits good cycling stability, which can sustain 20 successive cycles without obvious decay of activity and NH3FE. Meanwhile, in situelectrochemical Raman spectroscopy results unravel the NO3−-to-NH3pathway.

The practical applications of temperature-tolerant Zn–air batteries (ZABs) rely on highly active and stable bifunctional catalysts that accelerate cathodic oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions. Herein, we successfully integrated fascinating transition metal nitrides and FeCo alloys through a simple coordination assembly and pyrolysis process. Importantly, the alloy-to-nitride ratio in the heterogeneous catalyst can be carefully regulated through the subsequent etching process. Moreover, the composition-dependent ORR/OER performance of the FeCo-Mo0.82N catalysts was revealed. Aqueous ZABs using the optimized FeCo-Mo0.82N-60 as a cathode exhibit a high peak power density of 149.7 mW cm–2and an impressive stability of 600 h with a low charge–discharge voltage gap decay rate of 0.025 mV h–1, which exceeds those of most of recent reports. Furthermore, the FeCo-Mo0.82N-60-based flexible ZABs display a small specific capacity degradation (3%) from 40 to −10 °C, demonstrating excellent temperature tolerance.

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Phase transition–structure–dielectric properties in microwave band correlations were determined for the (Sm1–xCax) (Nb1–xMox)O4(SNCMo@x) system. X-ray and Raman analyses along with selected-area electron diffraction indicated that SNCMo@x(0.15 ≤ x< 0.375) ceramics crystallize in the I2/aspace group (monoclinic fergusonite), whereas the I41/aspace group (tetragonal scheelite) best describes SNCMo@x(0.375 ≤ x≤ 0.7), suggesting that the increased ionic radius of the A-site effectively contributed to the ferroelastic phase transition and ensures the stability of the scheelite phase. The SNCMo@xceramic materials exhibit composition-dependent permittivity (εr) with a distribution between 12.0 and 17.7. The distortion and deformation of the [BO] polyhedra should be responsible for the shift from negative to positive temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) and the irregular behavior of the quality factor (Q× f). An optimum microwave dielectric performance was achieved for SNCMo@0.18 (εr∼ 17.1, Q× f∼ 52, 800 GHz at ∼8.80 GHz, and TCF ∼ −1.4 ppm/°C). This work demonstrates the important role of simultaneous substitution of A/B cations on [BO] polyhedral distortion and deformation in RENbO4materials and its significant effect on the microwave dielectric properties. Also, the SNCMo@0.18 ceramic has been designed as a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna with a high simulated radiation efficiency (97.1%) and gain (5.96 dBi) at the center frequency (7.75 GHz), indicating its promising application in X-band satellite communication (7.62–7.89 GHz) because of its adjustable permittivity, low loss, and good temperature stability.

Despite the remarkable performance on various Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks, the parametric complexity of pretrained language models has remained a major obstacle due to limited computational resources in many practical applications. Techniques such as knowledge distillation, network pruning, and quantization have been developed for language model compression. However, it has remained challenging to achieve an optimal tradeoff between model size and inference accuracy. To address this issue, we propose a novel and efficient uncertainty-driven knowledge distillation compression method for transformer-based pretrained language models. Specifically, we design a method of parameter retention and feedforward network parameter distillation to compress N-stacked transformer modules into one module in the fine-tuning stage. A key innovation of our approach is to add the uncertainty estimation module (UEM) into the student network such that it can guide the student network's feature reconstruction in the latent space (similar to the teacher's). Across multiple datasets in the natural language inference tasks of GLUE, we have achieved more than 95% accuracy of the original BERT, while only using about 50% of the parameters.

High-throughput maize phenotyping at both organ and plant levels plays a key role in molecular breeding for increasing crop yields. Although the rapid development of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provides a new way to characterize three-dimensional (3D) plant structure, there is a need to develop robust algorithms for extracting 3D phenotypic traits from LiDAR data to assist in gene identification and selection. Accurate 3D phenotyping in field environments remains challenging, owing to difficulties in segmentation of organs and individual plants in field terrestrial LiDAR data. We describe a two-stage method that combines both convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and morphological characteristics to segment stems and leaves of individual maize plants in field environments. It initially extracts stem points using the PointCNN model and obtains stem instances by fitting 3D cylinders to the points. It then segments the field LiDAR point cloud into individual plants using local point densities and 3D morphological structures of maize plants. The method was tested using 40 samples from field observations and showed high accuracy in the segmentation of both organs (F-score =0.8207) and plants (F-score =0.9909). The effectiveness of terrestrial LiDAR for phenotyping at organ (including leaf area and stem position) and individual plant (including individual height and crown width) levels in field environments was evaluated. The accuracies of derived stem position (position error =0.0141 m), plant height (R2 >0.99), crown width (R2 >0.90), and leaf area (R2 >0.85) allow investigating plant structural and functional phenotypes in a high-throughput way. This CNN-based solution overcomes the major challenges in organ-level phenotypic trait extraction associated with the organ segmentation, and potentially contributes to studies of plant phenomics and precision agriculture.

The development of a low-cost, highly catalytic, and soil fertility-improving biochar material is of significant importance for the sustained remediation of organic pollutants in the environment. In this study, multifunctional N, Fe dual active site biochar (NF-BC) was successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method using cotton straw, urea, and FeCl3as raw materials. Compared to the original biochar, NF-BC exhibits high graphitic-N content and abundant Fe2+, enabling efficient activation of Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the removal of Paclobutrazol (PBZ) in water and soil. EPR and quenching experiments confirm that the free radical pathway (•OH) and the non-free radical pathway (1O2) act together in PBZ degradation. The DFT results illustrate the benzene and pyridine rings of PBZ are electron-rich regions, which can be attacked by reactive oxygen species. Then three possible degradation pathways are provided by combining them with the LC/MS test. After remediation by the NF-BC/PMS system, the soil fertility index and plant growth are significantly improved. Compared to CK, the pH value and SOM content of the soil remained unchanged after remediation with the NF-BC/PMS system, while the content of available K and hydrolyzed N increased by 27.18 and 2.27 times, respectively. The pot experiments showed that the NF-BC/PMS system not only alleviates the stress of PBZ on mung bean seedlings, but also promotes an increase in leaf area, accumulation of dry biomass, and root growth. This work provides a new idea for the preparation of low-cost and multifunctional biochar for the efficient removal of pesticides in soil and water environments.

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising cost-effective and low energy consumption technology for water desalination. However, most of the previous works focus on only one side of the CDI system, i.e., Na+ion capture, while the other side that stores chloride ions, which is equally important, receives very little attention. This is attributed to the limited Cl–storage materials as well as their sluggish kinetics and poor stability. In this article, we demonstrate that a N-doped porous carbon framework is capable of suppressing the phase-transformation-induced performance decay of bismuth, affording an excellent Cl–storage and showing potential for water desalination. The obtained Bi-carbon composite (Bi/N-PC) shows a capacity of up to 410.4 mAh g–1at 250 mA g–1and a high rate performance. As a demonstration for water desalination, a superior desalination capacity of 113.4 mg g–1is achieved at 100 mA g–1with excellent durability. Impressively, the CDI system exhibits fast ion capturing with a desalination rate as high as 0.392 mg g–1s–1, outperforming most of the recently reported Cl–capturing electrodes. This strategy is applicable to other Cl–storage materials for next-generation capacitive deionization.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.

ABSTRACTThe kinetics and mechanism of the reduction of manganese dioxide ore by calcium lignosulfonate (CLS) in acid solution were investigated. The results showed that the reducing process mainly occurred after the adsorption and then decomposition of CLS by ore and the concentration of sulphuric acid exerted an enhancing effect on both CLS adsorption and manganese extraction. The effects of leaching temperature, the mass ratio of CLS to MnO2in ore, concentration of sulphuric acid as well as leaching time on per cent leached of Mn were also discussed. The experimental data were well interpreted with a shrinking core model of internal diffusion, and an overall kinetic model was established. The reaction rate constant was found to be proportional to the mass ratio of CLS to MnO2in ore and concentration of sulphuric acid, and the apparent activation energy was determined to be 69.4 kJ mol−1by using Arrhenius expression.

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted much attention due to their ultrahigh theoretical specific capacity. However, serious capacity attenuation caused by shuttle effect still inhibits the performance improvement. Herein, a modified separator consists of the few-layer graphene as a highly conductive network and stable scaffold to support P-doped boron nitride (denoted as BN-P@GO) as the functional interlayer of Li–S batteries. The cell with the interlayer provides an initial discharge capacity as high as 1045.3 mAh g−1, and retains a high reversible capacity of 728.7 mAh g−1at 1 C after 500 cycles with a capacity decay of 0.061% per cycle. Moreover, the rate capability is also superior to cells with BN@GO or BN-P interlayers, i.e. reversible capcity of 457.9 mAh g−1even at 3 C. The excellent electrochemical performance is ascribed to the synergistic effect of physical barrier and chemical adsorption for dissolved polysulfides provided by the modified layer. Furhtermore, it also mitigates the polarization and promotes kinetic reactions of the cells. This work provides a concise and effective method for commercialization of lithium–sulfur batteries.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is characterized by the gradual loss of renal mass and functions. It has become a global health problem, with hundreds of millions of people being affected. Both its incidence and prevalence are increasing over time. More than $20,000 are spent on each patient per year. The economic burden on the patients, as well as the society, is heavy and their life quality worsen over time. However, there are still limited effective therapeutic strategies for CKD. Patients mainly rely on dialysis and renal transplantation, which cannot prevent all the complications of CKD. Great efforts are needed in understanding the nature of CKD progression as well as developing effective therapeutic methods, including pharmacological agents. This paper reviews three aspects in the research of CKD that may show great interests to those who devote to bioanalysis, biomedicine and drug development, including important endogenous biomarkers quantification, mechanisms underlying CKD progression and current status of CKD therapy.

Flexible zinc-air batteries (FZABs) are featured with safety and high theoretical capacity and become one of the ideal energy supply devices for flexible electronics. However, the lack of cost-effective electrocatalysts remains a major obstacle to their commercialization. Herein, we synthesized a porous dodecahedral nitrogen-doped carbon material with Co and Mn bimetallic co-embedding (CoxMn1−x@NC) as a highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst for ZABs. The incorporation of Mn effectively modulates the electronic structure of Co sites, which may lead to optimized energetics with oxygen-containing intermediates thereby significantly enhancing catalytic performance. Notably, the optimized Co4Mn1@NC catalyst exhibits superior E1/2(0.86 V) and jL(5.96 mA cm−2) compared to Pt/C and other recent reports. Moreover, aqueous ZAB using the Co4Mn1@NC as a cathodic catalyst demonstrates a high peak power density of 163.9 mW cm−2and maintains stable charging and discharging for over 650 h. Furthermore, FZAB based on the Co4Mn1@NC can steadily operate within the temperature range of -10 °C to 40 °C, demonstrating the potential for practical applications in complex climatic conditions.

Layered semiconductor photocatalysts have been found to exhibit promising performance levels, probably linked to their interlayer framework that facilitates separation of charge carriers and the reduction/oxidation reactions. Layered titanates, however, generally demonstrate activities under UV irradiation, and therein lies the strong desire to extend their activity into the visible light region. Here, we investigated a series of layered perovskite by doping Sr2TiO4with Cr and/or La in the hope to improve their visible light responses. Their crystal structures and other physicochemical properties were systematically explored. Our results show that La and Cr can be successfully accommodated in the layered structure and Cr is an efficient dopant for the extension of visible light absorbance. Much enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution was observed after doping and was found to be composition-dependent. The highest hydrogen production rate approaches 97.7 μmol/h for Sr2Ti0.95Cr0.05O4-δunder full range irradiation (λ ≥ 250 nm) and 17 μmol/h for Sr2Ti0.9Cr0.1O4-δunder visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm), corresponding to an apparent quantum efficiency of 0.16% and 0.05%, respectively. Theoretical calculation reveals that the improved optical and photocatalytic properties are owing to a newly formed spin-polarized valence band from Cr 3d orbitals. The decreased unit cell parameters, reduced band gaps as well as anisotropic properties of layered architectures are likely the reasons for a better activity. Nevertheless, instability of these compounds in the presence of moisture and CO2was also noticed, suggesting that protective atmospheres are needed for the storage of these photocatalysts.

BackgroundAllogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is an effective method for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. Malnutrition is a common complication and has a negative impact on poor prognosis. It has been proved that blood biochemical indexes such as muscle mass ratio albumin etc. can reflect earlier the nutritional status of patients, but the influence of muscle mass pre-transplantation on the early transplantation related complications remains unclear. ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of pre-transplantation skeletal muscle mass (SMM) on the early outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and to provide clinical evidence for nutritional intervention and prognosis improvement. MethodA cohort study was conducted in 77 patients with leukemia who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the Hematology Medical Center of Chongqing Xinqiao Hospital from January to October 2022 were selected. The skeletal muscle quality was evaluated by bioelectrical impedance method. According to the skeletal muscle mass, the patients were divided into normal skeletal muscle mass group(36) and low skeletal muscle mass group(41). The baseline data of the patients were collected, including personal information and clinical data. SPSS23.0 software was used to compare the differences in oral mucositis, digestive tract symptoms, infection and hematopoietic reconstitution time between the two groups. ResultBefore transplantation, the SMM of patients was poor, which was not up to the normal value in 53.25%.The incidence of oral mucitis in normal SMM group was 41.67%, significantly lower than that in low SMM group 92.68%( χ2=23.255, P<0.001).The severity of oral mucositis was significantly different (Z=6.461, P<0.001) between the normal SMM group and the low SMM group. The incidence of hypoalbuminemia in normal SMM group was 16.67%, significantly lower than that in low SMM group 46.34%( χ2=7.699， P<0.001).The incidence of overt gastrointestinal bleeding and infection in normal SMM group were significantly lower than those in low SMM group ( c２=4.208， P=0.040； c２=4.727， P=0.030). the neutrophils and platelets grafting time in the normal SMM group was significantly shorter than that in the low SMM group ( Z=2.943， P=0.003； Z=2.756， P=0.006). There was no significant difference in the incidence of diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, stomachache/ abdominal pain between the two groups. ConclusionThe incidence of low skeletal muscle mass is high in patients before transplantation, and low skeletal muscle mass is associated with the onset of oral mucositis, the severity of oral mucositis, hypoalbuminemia,gastrointestinal bleeding ,infectionand the delay of neutrophil and platelet implantation time in patients at the early stage of transplantation. Patients should actively improve skeletal muscle mass before transplantation to improve the early outcome of transplantation.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are the most promising candidates for large-scale energy storage devices due to the advantages of low cost, high safety, environmental friendliness and high energy density. However, the low Coulombic efficiency (CE) and short cycle life of AZIBs caused by dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution reaction and corrosion of Zn anode, are limited the development and application of AZIBs in the future. To solve these problems, many works focused on the modification of Zn anode and electrolyte optimization have been widely reported. The separator–electrolyte interface and the separator–anode interface play a significant part in the behavior of zinc ions. Owing to the importance of separators for batteries, this paper reviews the requirements and optimization strategies of separators for AZIBs. It is mainly based on the surface modification of conventional separators (e.g. glass fiber, cellulose separators), the introduction of an intermediate membrane in the interlayer of the separator and anode, and the preparation of new-type separators to replace the conventional separators. In addition, this review proposes a further outlook on the future development of separators for AZIBs.

Organic pollution is considered as a long-term, urgent global issue for energy, environmental, and ecological applications. Carbon-based materials have shown great potential in addressing this global issue. However, development of low-cost and high-performance of carbon-based three-dimensional materials has also proven to challenging for removal of organic pollutants from water. Here, we developed a new technique combining a liquid-assisted electrospinning and interface self-assembly of graphene to successfully fabricate novel graphene fluffy nanofibrous scaffold (GFNs) as an efficient organic pollution absorbent. The resultant GFNs with several advantages of distinctive 3D fluffy macro-structure, super porosity, low density, strong mechanical stability, and super hydrophobicity/oleophicity, demonstrated high adsorption capacity for organic solvents (201 times their own weight) and oils (119 times their own weight), as well as excellent recyclability by simple extrusion. Different from conventional graphene sponges that require a high content of graphene for complex fabrication, the preparation of GFNs only used a very small amount of graphene (1.0 mg/cm3) to achieve comparable or even better adsorption capacity and recyclability. Because of the viable synthesis method, GFNs with unique advantages and superior performance show great potential for industrial applications in environmental protections such as oil pollution cleanup and wastewater treatment.

ABSTRACTCircular RNAs (circRNAs) are highly expressed in the central nervous system and are involved in the regulation of physiological and pathophysiological processes. However, the potential role of circRNAs in stroke remains largely unknown. Here, using a circRNA microarray, we showed that circular RNA Hectd1(circHectd1) levels were significantly increased in ischemic brain tissues in transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) mouse stroke models and further validated this finding in plasma samples from acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. Knockdown of circHectd1expression significantly decreased infarct areas, attenuated neuronal deficits, and ameliorated astrocyte activation in tMCAO mice. Mechanistically, circHECTD1functions as an endogenous MIR142(microRNA 142) sponge to inhibit MIR142activity, resulting in the inhibition of TIPARP (TCDD inducible poly[ADP-ribose] polymerase) expression with subsequent inhibition of astrocyte activation via macroautophagy/autophagy. Taken together, the results of our study indicate that circHECTD1and its coupling mechanism are involved in cerebral ischemia, thus providing translational evidence that circHECTD1can serve as a novel biomarker of and therapeutic target for stroke.Abbreviations:3-MA: 3-methyladenine; ACTB: actin beta; AIS: acute ischemic stroke; AS: primary mouse astrocytes; BECN1: beclin 1, autophagy related; BMI: body mass index; circHECTD1: circRNA HECTD1; circRNAs: circular RNAs; CBF: cerebral blood flow; Con: control; DAPI: 4ʹ,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; ECA: external carotid artery; FISH: fluorescence in situ hybridization; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; Gdna: genomic DNA; GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein; GO: gene ontology; HDL: high-density lipoprotein; IOD: integrated optical density; LDL: low-density lipoprotein; LPA: lipoprotein(a); MAP1LC3B: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; MIR142: microRNA 142; mNSS: modified neurological severity scores; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; NIHSS: National Institute of Health Stoke Scale; OGD-R: oxygen glucose deprivation-reperfusion; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; PFA: paraformaldehyde; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; TIPARP: TCDD inducible poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase; tMCAO: transient middle cerebral artery occlusion; TTC: 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride; UTR: untranslated region; WT: wild type

With the growing population and the reducing arable land, breeding has been considered as an effective way to solve the food crisis. As an important part in breeding, high-throughput phenotyping can accelerate the breeding process effectively. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology that is capable of acquiring three-dimensional (3D) data accurately, and has a great potential in crop phenotyping. Given that crop phenotyping based on LiDAR technology is not common in China, we developed a high-throughput crop phenotyping platform, named Crop 3D, which integrated LiDAR sensor, high-resolution camera, thermal camera and hyperspectral imager. Compared with traditional crop phenotyping techniques, Crop 3D can acquire multi-source phenotypic data in the whole crop growing period and extract plant height, plant width, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, leaf inclination angle and other parameters for plant biology and genomics analysis. In this paper, we described the designs, functions and testing results of the Crop 3D platform, and briefly discussed the potential applications and future development of the platform in phenotyping. We concluded that platforms integrating LiDAR and traditional remote sensing techniques might be the future trend of crop high-throughput phenotyping.

Despite a strong visible light absorption at a wavelength as far as 610 nm, SrTaO2N generally exhibits poor photocatalytic activity due to photocatalytic self-decomposition. In this study, we introduce Na into the B site of SrTaO2N and perform an investigation on its crystal structure, optical absorption and photocatalytic water oxidation in response to Na incorporation. Our results suggest that Na incorporation effectively enhances local Ta–O(N) bond strength, which is responsible for strong interband light absorption, low tendency to defect formation and high stability against photocatalytic self-decomposition. Efficient photocatalytic water oxidation was realized in Na-modified SrTaO2N (Sr0.8Na0.2TaO2.8N0.2) with an apparent quantum efficiency as high as 0.2% under visible light illumination (≥400 nm). This simple strategy highlights the benefits of alkaline metal modification and can be extended to other nitrides or oxynitrides where management of local bond strength is needed.

Developing highly active and robust oxygen catalysts is of great significance for the commercialization of Zn-air batteries (ZABs) with long-life stability. Herein, heterostructured catalysts comprising molybdenum carbide and metallic Co are prepared by a simple dicyandiamide-assisted pyrolysis strategy. Importantly, the crystalline phase of molybdenum carbide in the catalysts can be carefully regulated by adjusting the CoMo-imidazole precursor and dicyandiamide ratio. The electronic configuration of Co and Mo centers as well as the phase-dependent oxygen reduction reaction performance of these heterostructures (β-Mo2C/Co, β-Mo2C/η-MoC/Co, and η-MoC/Co) was disclosed. A highly active η-MoC/Co cathode enables ZABs with outstanding long-term stability over 850 h with a low voltage decaying rate of 0.06 mV·h–1and high peak power density of 162 mW·cm–2. This work provides a new idea for the rational design of efficient and stable cathode catalysts for ZABs.

Shengmai San (SMS), a well-known traditional Chinese medical formula containing seven herbal medicines, has been used for the treatment of cardiovascular disease in Asian countries, however, so far its active chemical constituents remain unclear. To quickly identify the chemical constituents of SMS and to understand the chemical profiles related to the in vivoactivity of SMS, a rapid and robust ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization/quadrupole-time-of-flight high-definition mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-HDMS) approach has been applied for the online identification of multiple components in rat plasma after the oral administration of SMS. MetaboLynx software, which is a novel post-acquisition data processing software to detect components, was also conducted to discover bioactive components in vivo. A total of 30 compounds were detected in dosed rat plasma compared with blank rat plasma and tentatively characterized by comparing their retention times and MS spectra with those of authentic compounds or literature data. Furthermore, this work demonstrated the possibilities of using the UPLC-Q-TOF-HDMS approach for the identification of bioactive compounds from herbal medicines in vivo. Our present results also proved that the established method could provide helpful chemical information for further pharmacological studies of SMS.

Adaptability of soybean [Glycine max(L.) Merr.] to a wide range of latitudes is attributed to the natural variation in the major genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) that control flowering time and maturity. Identification of novel genes and understanding their molecular basis is critical to improving soybean productivity. We identified a new locus conditioning days to flowering and maturity that was detected in hybrid progeny between cultivated and wild soybeans. A backcross was made between the recurrent parent Tokei 780 and two early‐flowering recombinant inbred lines (RILs; from the cross Tokei 780 × Hidaka 4, a wild soybean accession, all of which possessed an identical genotype at the major four maturity loci, E1to E4). The segregation patterns observed in the F2and F3progeny derived from the two crosses revealed that early‐flowering was controlled by a single dominant gene. The gene was fine‐mapped to a 245‐kb interval between markers M5 and M7 on Gm16. A tagging marker ID1 was significantly associated with the variation in days to flowering (0.82, p< 0.01) and maturity (0.76, p< 0.01) in the F2population. The new early‐flowering gene and its tagging marker are very useful for molecular breeding towards early maturity and stable productivity of soybean under high‐latitude environments. The gene symbol E9e9has been assigned. E9E9results in early maturity and e9e9results in late maturity.

To enhance the therapeutic efficacy and reduce the adverse effects of traditional Chinese medicine, practitioners often prescribe combinations of plant species and/or minerals, called formulae. Unfortunately, the working mechanisms of most of these compounds are difficult to determine and thus remain unknown. In an attempt to address the benefits of formulae based on current biomedical approaches, we analyzed the components of Yinchenhao Tang, a classical formula that has been shown to be clinically effective for treating hepatic injury syndrome. The three principal components of Yinchenhao Tang are Artemisia annuaL., Gardenia jasminoidsEllis, and Rheum PalmatumL., whose major active ingredients are 6,7-dimethylesculetin (D), geniposide (G), and rhein (R), respectively. To determine the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of this formula, we conducted a systematic analysis of the therapeutic effects of the DGR compound using immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, metabolomics, and proteomics. Here, we report that the DGR combination exerts a more robust therapeutic effect than any one or two of the three individual compounds by hitting multiple targets in a rat model of hepatic injury. Thus, DGR synergistically causes intensified dynamic changes in metabolic biomarkers, regulates molecular networks through target proteins, has a synergistic/additive effect, and activates both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways.