Search

Lithium sulfide (Li2S) as a cathode material for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, one of the most promising advanced batteries in the future, has received tremendous attention in the past decades. However, developing the practical Li2S cathode confronts challenges of low conductivity for Li-ions and electrons, high sensitivity to environmental moisture, big overpotential barrier to electrochemical activation, and poor cyclability due to the shuttle effect of intermediate species. This article herein reports a simple and effective strategy for making Li2S@Li2S2@Li2S6 double-shelled microparticles, which can significantly mitigate these problems. They are synthesized by dissolving Li2S together with S in dimethoxyethane, then drying off the solvent, and finally calcining the collected solid. Compared with pure Li2S, such a double-shell material presents a 26.7% improvement in cycling capacity, 0.5 V lower in activation overpotential, and prolonged tolerance in the ambient environment. The density functional theory calculation shows that the performance enhancement lies in the higher stability of Li2S6 in contact with moisture and some autocatalytic effect of Li2S2@Li2S6. Such a double-shell structure becomes a universal performance-enhancing approach when being combined with other means, such as cathodes composited with catalytic MoS2, separators modified with selenium-doped sulfurized-polyacrylonitrile/montmorillonite, electrolytes containing fluorenone additive, and Li anodes coated with a layer of Li3N. The corresponding capacity retention shows up to 80% improvement compared with pure Li2S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a "solo-solvent de novo liquid-phase" method of synthesizing a highly-favored sulfide electrolyte (Li6PS5Cl) for developing all-solid-state lithium batteries. The key chemistry for such a successful method is that tetrahydropyrrole enables in situ synthesis of the critical precursor Li2S from cheap and air-stable precursors of lithium chloride and sodium sulfide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dezhou donkey is one of the representative local breeds in China, which is mainly divided into two strains: Sanfen and Wutou. There are obvious differences in coat color between the two strains. The former shows light points around the eyes, around the muzzle and under the belly, while the latter is completely solid black. In this study, genome‐wide association analysis was performed for the differences in coat color traits between the Sanfen (n = 97) and Wutou (n = 108) strains using a novel donkey 40K liquid chip developed based on GenoBaits technology, to identify genomic regions and causal genes that could explain this variation. We also used FST and The cross‐population composite likelihood ratio test (XPCLR) analyses to explore selected regions related to coat color differences. We identified one significant region on chromosome 15, with the most significant SNP located within the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene. At the same time, both FST and XPCLR methods detected the same selected region on chromosome 15, and ASIP was the gene with the strongest signal. ASIP and melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) control the ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin through their protein activity. They are deeply involved in the process of melanosome organation and melanogenesis, thus affecting mammals' coat color variation. We used a range of genome‐wide approach to identify the genetic basis of coat color variation in Dezhou donkeys. The results provide a supplement to the color variation study in Chinese donkeys at the genome‐wide level, and preliminarily verified the reliability of the Molbreeding Donkey No. 1 40K liquid chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents the fundamental report of the survey of genome-wide changes of four Chinese indigenous donkey breeds, Dezhou (DZ), Guangling (GL), North China (NC), and Shandong Little donkey (SDL), and the findings will prove usefully for identification of biomarkers that perhaps predict or characterize the growth and coat color patterns. Three genomic regions in CYP3A12, TUBGCP5, and GSTA1 genes, were identified as putative selective sweeps in all researched donkey populations. The loci of candidate genes that may have contributed to the phenotypes in body size (ACSL4, MSI2, ADRA1B, and CDKL5) and coat color patterns (KITLG and TBX3) in donkey populations would be found in underlying strong selection signatures when compared between large and small donkey types, and between different coat colors. The results of the phylogenetic analysis, FST, and principal component analysis (PCA) supported that each population cannot clearly deviate from each other, showing no obvious population structure. We can conclude from the population history that the formation processes between DZS and NC, GL, and SDL are completely different. The genetic variants discovered here provide a rich resource to help identify potential genomic markers and their associated molecular mechanisms that impact economically important traits for Chinese donkey breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, in order to improve the wear resistance of road cement, nano-Si3N4 (NSN) was incorporated into cement, and the effect of NSN on compressive strength and wear resistance of road cement was investigated. The main variable of the experimental investigation was the dosage of NSN. The experimental results showed that the addition of NSN could significantly improve the compressive strength and wear resistance of cement paste. Compared with the reference group, the wear resistance can be improved by 46.5% and the compressive strength of cement paste can be improved by 12.3% when the addition of NSN is 0.16% by weight. In addition, the improvement mechanisms of NSN on cement paste were revealed by hydration heat, XRD, DTA-TG, nanoindentation, nitrogen adsorption, and SEM for microscopic phase tests. Through the microscopic analysis, the addition of NSN can accelerate the hydration reaction and promote the hydration degree, optimize the pore structure, and make the cement paste more compact. Additionally, NSN can improve the performance of the interface transition zone (ITZ) and increase the content of HD C-S-H gel. The action mechanism of NSN is mainly dominated by the surface effect, filling effect, and larger surface energy of NSN thereby improving the mechanical properties of cement-based materials. These research results have guiding significance for the design of the high wear resistance and high compressive strength of cement-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donkey meat is characterized by a high content of proteins, essential amino acids, and unsaturated fatty acids and is low in fat, cholesterol, and calories. Thus, it is considered a high-quality source of meat. Based on the data from PubMed and Web of science within past 10 years, this review summarizes the factors affecting the quality of donkey meat and its nutritional value, including breed, genetics, gender, age, muscle type, feeding regimen, storage and processing conditions. Breed, gender, age, and feeding regimen mainly affect the quality of donkey meat by influencing its intramuscular fat content and carcass quality. Meanwhile, the tenderness and flavor of donkey meat depend on the muscle type, storage and processing conditions. Genetics, on the other hand, fundamentally affect donkey meat quality by influencing the polymorphism of genes. These findings provide valuable insights and guidance for producers, consumers, and decision-makers in the donkey meat industry, promoting the development of more effective marketing strategies and the improvement of meat quality, thereby enabling the expansion and progress of the entire industry., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Zhang, Sun and Liu.)

Li 6 PS 5 Cl (LPSC) is a very attractive sulfide solid electrolyte for developing high-performance all-solid-state lithium batteries. However, it cannot suppress the growth of lithium dendrites and then can only tolerate a small critical current density (CCD) before getting short-circuited to death. Learning from that a newly-developed LaCl 3 -based electrolyte (LTLC) can afford a very large CCD, a three-layer sandwich-structured electrolyte is designed by inserting LTLC inside LPSC. Remarkably, compared with bland LPSC, this hybrid electrolyte LPSC/LTLC/LPSC presents extraordinary performance improvements: the CCD gets increased from 0.51 to 1.52 mA cm -2 , the lifetime gets prolonged from 7 h to >500 h at the cycling current of 0.5 mA cm -2 in symmetric cells, and the cyclability gets extended from 10 cycles to >200 cycles at the cycling rate of 0.5 C and 30 °C in Li|electrolyte|NCM721 full cells. The enhancing reasons are assigned to the capability of LTLC to scavenge lithium dendrites, forming a passive layer of Ta, La, and LiCl., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

We report a "solo-solvent de novo liquid-phase" method of synthesizing a highly-favored sulfide electrolyte (Li 6 PS 5 Cl) for developing all-solid-state lithium batteries. The key chemistry for such a successful method is that tetrahydropyrrole enables in situ synthesis of the critical precursor Li 2 S from cheap and air-stable precursors of lithium chloride and sodium sulfide.

Combining gene targeting of animal somatic cells with nuclear transfer technique has provided a powerful method to produce transgenic animal mammary gland bioreactor. The objective of this study is to make an efficient and reproducible gene targeting in goat fetal fibroblasts by inserting the exogenous htPAm cDNA into the beta-casein locus with liposomes or electroporation so that htPAm protein might be produced in gene-targeted goat mammary gland. By gene-targeting technique, the exogenous htPAm gene was inserted to milk goat beta-casein gene sequences. Fetal fibroblasts were isolated from Day 35 fetuses of Guanzhong milk goats, and transfected with linear gene-targeting vector pGBC4htPAm using Lipefectamin-2000 and electoporation, respectively. Forty-eight gene-targeted cell colonies with homologous recombination were obtained, and three cell colonies were verified by DNA sequence analysis within the homologous recombination region. Using gene-targeted cell lines as donor cells for nuclear transfer, a total of 600 reconstructed embryos had been obtained, and 146 developed cloned embryos were transferred to 16 recipient goats, and finally three goats showed pregnancy at Day 90.