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Simple Summary: Seasonal reproduction is a survival strategy employed by many animals, reflecting their adaptation to environmental conditions. This study highlights the differential expression of piRNAs during the reproductive cycle in the testes of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi) and the associated mRNA enrichment functions and pathways. Our findings demonstrate that piRNAs regulate the PIWI gene family in these high-altitude rodents, thereby influencing testicular development and contributing to seasonal reproduction. The enriched pathways of associated mRNAs regulate and activate testicular development, initiating functions crucial for sperm motility. We believe this study provides valuable insights into the initiation of seasonal reproduction and the underlying regulatory mechanisms in free-living, subterranean rodents. Seasonal reproduction is a mammalian behavior that has developed over an extended evolutionary period and requires animals to respond to external environmental changes to facilitate reproduction. In this study, we investigated the role of PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) in the seasonal reproduction of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi). piRNA expression profiles in plateau zokor testes during both breeding and non-breeding seasons were examined. The piRNAs had a distinctive ping-pong signature and ranged from 27 to 32 nt with a peak at 30 nt. Testicular piRNAs predominantly aligned to specific genomic regions, including repeat and gene regions. Analysis of the piRNA–mRNA interaction network and functional enrichment of differentially expressed piRNAs targeting mRNAs revealed their association with testicular development and spermatogenesis. Significantly, PIWIL4 is an mRNA gene that interacts with piRNA and exhibits high expression levels within the testes during the non-breeding phase. This study provides a foundation to improve our understanding of piRNA regulatory mechanisms during testicular development and spermatogenesis in seasonally reproducing animals and, specifically, in the plateau zokor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: With the implementation of China's ecological projects and related policies, the population of wild boars has rapidly increased, leading to an increased possibility of conflicts with humans. Thus, it is crucial to understand the distribution and habitat selection of wild boars in northwest China for the control and management of this species. This study used the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) to analyze the potential distribution areas of wild boars in the northwest region under the current environmental conditions and compare changes in land use in their habitats over time. The findings revealed that wild boars prefer habitats dominated by cultivated land, woodland, and grassland. Precipitation seasonality, elevation, and human footprint index were identified as the main environmental factors influencing their habitat selection. These findings indicate that wild boar habitat selection results from comprehensive consideration of the environment, providing a theoretical reference for guiding ecological prevention measures and population management strategies for wild boars in the northwestern region. With the implementation of ecological engineering projects and related policies in China, wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations have surged, leading to increasingly serious conflicts with humans. We evaluated their potential habitat changes from the perspective of environmental suitability. To elucidate the suitable habitat characteristics for wild boars, we obtained data from 79 sites in five provinces in northwest China using database retrieval, human–wildlife conflict (HWC) incident questionnaires, and document retrieval. Thus, 10 environmental variables with lower correlation were selected, and potentially suitable distribution areas for wild boars under the current climate scenario were predicted based on the maximum entropy model. These areas were superimposed with different land use types in different periods to explore habitat selection. Precipitation seasonality (26.40%), human footprint index (16.50%), and elevation (11.90%) were the main environmental factors affecting wild boar distribution. The areas with high potential suitability for wild boars were mainly in the southeast and northwest of the region (total area of 2.63 × 105 km2). The land use types in the high-suitability zones are mainly woodland and grassland with high coverage, canopy density, and cultivated land borders. This study provides a reference for the effective prevention of HWC and management of wild boars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic tin (Sn) foil is a promising candidate anode for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) due to its metallurgical processability and high capacity. However, it suffers low initial Coulombic efficiency and inferior cycling stability due to its uneven alloying/dealloying reactions, large volume change and stress, and fast electrode structural degradation. Herein, we report an undulating LiSn electrode fabricated by a scalable two‐step procedure involving mechanical lithography and chemical prelithiation of Sn foil. With the combination of experimental measurements and chemo‐mechanical simulations, it was revealed the obtained undulating LiSn/Sn electrode could ensure better mechanical stability due to the pre‐swelling state from Sn to LixSn and undulating structure of lithography in comparison with plane Sn, homogenize the electrochemical alloying/dealloying reactions due to the activated surface materials, and compensate Li loss during cycling due to the introduction of excess Li from LixSn, thus enabling enhanced electrochemical performance. Symmetric cells consisting of undulating LiSn/Sn electrode with an active thickness of ∼5 um displayed stable cycling over 1000 h at 1 mA cm‐2 and 1 mAh cm‐2 with a low average overpotential of <15 mV. When paired with commercial LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622) cathode with high mass loading of 15.8 mg cm‐2, the full cell demonstrated a high capacity of 2.4 mAh cm‐2 and outstanding cycling stability with 84.9% capacity retention at 0.5 C after 100 cycles. This work presents an advanced LiSn electrode with stress‐regulation design toward high‐performance LIBs, and sheds light on the rational electrode design and processing of other high‐capacity lithium alloy anodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]