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During development, many aspects of behaviour, including partner preferences and sexual behaviour, are "organized" by neural aromatization of androgen and oestrogen. This study aimed to analyse these processes in the mandarin vole (Microtus mandarinus); this is a novel mammalian model exhibiting strong monogamous pair bonds. Male pups were treated daily with a sesame oil only (MC) or the oestrogen receptor blocker‐clomiphene citrate sesame oil mixture (MT) from prenatal day 14 to postnatal day 10. Female pups were treated daily with sesame oil only (FC). Partner preferences, sexual behaviour, and the expression of androgen receptor (AR) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) were examined when animals were 3 months old. The MT and FC groups exhibited male‐directed partner preferences and feminized behaviour. AR‐immunoreactive neurons (AR‐IRs) in the medial preoptic area (mPOA), bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST), and medial amygdaloid nucleus (MeA) were reduced in MT males compared to MC males, and there was no significant difference in the number of AR‐IRs between MT males and FC females. AVP‐immunoreactive neurons (AVP‐IRs) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and supraoptic nucleus (SON) were reduced in MT males compared to MC males, and there were no significant differences in the number of AVP‐IRs between MT males and FC females. The results indicate a significant role of hormone signalling in the development of male mate preference in the novel monogamous mammal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine biofouling is one of the most significant challenges hindering practical uranium extraction from seawater. Single atoms have been widely used in catalytic applications because of their remarkable redox property, implying that the single atom is highly capable of catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and acts as an anti‐biofouling substance for controlling biofouling. In this study, the Co single atom loaded polyacrylamidoxime (PAO) material, PAO‐Co, is fabricated based on the binding ability of the amidoxime group to uranyl and cobalt ions. Nitrogen and oxygen atoms from the amidoxime group stabilize the Co single atom. The fabricated PAO‐Co exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity against diverse marine microorganisms by producing ROS, with an inhibition rate up to 93.4%. The present study is the first to apply the single atom for controlling biofouling. The adsorbent achieves an ultrahigh uranium adsorption capacity of 9.7 mg g−1 in biofouling‐containing natural seawater, which decreased only by 11% compared with that in biofouling‐removed natural seawater. These findings indicate that applying single atoms would be a promising strategy for designing biofouling‐resistant adsorbents for uranium extraction from seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive coordination structure is vital for selective uranium extraction from seawater. By strategy of molecular imprinting, uranyl is introduced into a multivariate metal–organic framework (MOF) during the synthesis process to guide the in situ construction of proper nanocage structure for targeting uranyl binding. Except for the coordination between uranium with four oxygen from the materials, the axial oxygen of uranyl also forms hydrogen bonds with hydrogen from the phenolic hydroxyl group, which enhances the binding affinity of the material to uranyl. Attributing to the high binding affinity, the adsorbent shows high uranium binding selectivity to uranyl against not only the interfering metal ions, but also the carbonate group that coordinates with uranyl to form [UO2(CO)3]4− in seawater. In natural seawater, the adsorbent realizes a high uranium adsorption capacity of 7.35 mg g−1, together with an 18.38 times higher selectivity to vanadium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of environmental uranyl is attracting increasing attention. However, the available detection strategies mainly depend on the selective recognition of uranyl, which is subject to severe interference by coexisting metal ions. Herein, based on the unique uranyl‐triggered photocleavage property, the protein BSA is labelled with fluorescent molecules that exhibit an aggregation‐induced emission effect for uranyl detection. Uranyl‐triggered photocleavage causes the separation of the fluorescent‐molecule‐labelled protein fragments, leading to attenuation of the emission fluorescence, which is used as a signal for uranyl detection. This detection strategy shows high selectivity for uranyl and an ultralow detection limit of 24 pM with a broad detection range covering five orders of magnitude. The detection method also shows high reliability and stability, making it a promising technique for practical applications in diverse environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction of uranium from seawater, which is an abundant resource, has attracted considerable attention as a viable form of energy‐resource acquisition. The two critical factors for boosting the chemical thermodynamics of uranium extraction from seawater are the availability of sufficient amounts of uranyl ions for supply to adsorbents and increased interaction temperatures. However, current approaches only rely on the free diffusion of uranyl ions from seawater to the functional groups within adsorbents, which largely limits the uranium extraction capacity. Herein, inspired by the mechanism of plant transpiration, a plant‐mimetic directional‐channel poly(amidoxime) (DC‐PAO) hydrogel is designed to enhance the uranium extraction efficiency via the active pumping of uranyl ions into the adsorbent. Compared with the original PAO hydrogel without plant‐mimetic transpiration, the uranium extraction capacity of the DC‐PAO hydrogel increases by 79.33% in natural seawater and affords the fastest reported uranium extraction average rate of 0.917 mg g−1 d−1 among the most state‐of‐the‐art amidoxime group‐based adsorbents, along with a high adsorption capacity of 6.42 mg g−1 within 7 d. The results indicate that the proposed method can enhance the efficiency of solar‐transpiration‐based uranium extraction from seawater, particularly in terms of reducing costs and saving processing time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metal doping is an effective strategy to adjust catalytic performance for indium oxide catalyst in CO2 hydrogenation. In current work, a series dopant, Co, Fe, Ni, Pd, Pt, Rh, and Ru, are selected and examined in CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid by DFT based microkinetic simulation. It is found that substitutional doping is local effect, which mainly promotes the reactivity of adjacent oxygen atoms. The calculations of both CO2 adsorption and hydrogen molecule dissociation certify the positive effects induced by doping, and the adsorption energy of CO2 has a linear relation with the transferred charges for all investigated catalysts which helps to explain the C─O bond activation mechanism. Two pathways, formate and carboxyl, are investigated under same footing. It is noted that doping significantly reduces the hydrogenation barriers on two pathways compared with undoped surfaces. Moreover, the calculated TOF of formic acid formation is greatly increased on doped surfaces and Pt, Pd, and Ru are identified as the most active dopants. In the end, it is concluded that reaction obeys carboxyl mechanism and a valid descriptor of trans‐HCOOH* and H* formation energy is proposed for the screening of effective dopants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uranium level in seawater is ≈1000 times as high as terrestrial ores and can provide potential near‐infinite fuel for the nuclear energy industry. However, it is still a significant challenge to develop high‐efficiency and low‐cost adsorbents for massively extracting uranium from seawater. Herein, a simple and fast method through low‐energy consumption sunlight polymerization to direct fabrication of a poly(amidoxime) (PAO) hydrogel membrane, which exhibits high uranium adsorption capacity, is reported. This PAO hydrogel owns semi‐interpenetrating structure and a hydrophilic poly(acrylamide) 3D network of hydrogel which can disperse and fix PAOs well. As a result, the amidoxime groups of PAOs exhibit an outstanding uranium adsorption efficiency (718 ± 16.6 and 1279 ± 14.5 mg g−1 of muranium/mPAO in 8 and 32 ppm uranium‐spiked seawater, respectively) among reported hydrogel‐based adsorbents. Most importantly, U‐uptake capacity of this hydrogel can achieve 4.87 ± 0.38 mg g−1 of muranium/mdry gel just after four weeks within natural seawater. Furthermore, this hydrogel can be massively produced through low‐energy consumption and environmentally‐friendly sunlight polymerization. This work will provide a high‐efficiency and low‐cost adsorbent for massive uranium extraction from seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural differences have been reported between the taste sensitivity of persons of Asian and European ancestry, although findings have been mixed. This study sought to determine whether American and Chinese adults perform differently on a novel taste test that requires no water, can be self‐administered, and employs a representative of umami as one of its tastants. This 53‐trial test was administered to 113 Chinese and 214 Americans. The subjects orally sampled monomer cellulose pads containing one of four dried concentrations of sucrose, citric acid, NaCl, caffeine, and monosodium glutamate and indicated whether a sweet, sour, bitter, salty, brothy, or no taste sensation was perceived. Separate gender by culture analyses of covariance with age as the covariate were performed on the total score and the scores of each taste stimulus. For all taste qualities, women outperformed men and test scores declined with age. No difference between American and Chinese subjects was found for the total taste score (p =.129) or for the sucrose (p =.129) or NaCl (p =.368) scores. However, for monosodium glutamate, the scores were 28.40% higher for the Chinese than for the American subjects (p =.024), and for citric acid and caffeine, the scores were 24.12 and 21.79% higher for the American subjects (p's =.001 and.029). The basis for these differences is unclear, although both anatomical (e.g., differences in density or distribution of taste buds) and cultural factors may be involved. Future work is needed to determine the cause of these largely novel findings and whether they generalize to other Chinese and American samples. Practical applicationsIn this study, a practical self‐administered quantitative taste test that requires no water was found to be sensitive to quality‐specific differences in test scores between Chinese and American subjects, as well as to age and gender. The Chinese subjects outperformed the American subjects in correctly identifying the quality of monosodium glutamate (umami), whereas the American subjects outperformed Chinese subjects in correctly identifying the bitter and sour qualities of caffeine and citric acid, respectively. Experiential factors related to culture‐specific cuisines may explain some of these differences. This research indicates that a relatively rapid taste test, which can be sent through the mail and which requires no test administrator or source of water, can be used in cross‐cultural studies to elucidate individual differences in taste perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]