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In this study, a carbon felt (CF)-based ternary composite anode was developed through the decoration of nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) nano-needles and subsequent in situ electropolymerization of polypyrrole (PPy). The structural and electrochemical properties of the modified electrodes were systematically characterized. The CF/NiCo2O4/PPy anode demonstrated significantly enhanced bioelectrochemical activity, achieving a peak current density of 96.0 A/m2 and a steady-state current density of 28.9 A/m2, which were 4.85 and 5.90 times higher than those of bare carbon felt, respectively. Geobacteriaceae is a type of electrogenic bacteria. It was hardly detected on the bare CF substrate; however, in the ternary CF/NiCo2O4/PPy electrode, the relative abundance of Geobacteriaceae significantly increased to 43%. Moreover, the composite electrode exhibited superior charge storage performance, with a total charge (Qt) of 32,509.0 C/m2 and a stored charge (Qs) of 3609.0 C/m2 measured under a 1000 s charging/discharging period. The MFC configured with the CF/NiCo2O4/PPy anode reached a maximum power density of 1901.25 mW/m2 at an external resistance of 200 Ω, nearly six times that of the unmodified CF-based MFC. These improvements are attributed to the synergistic interaction between the pseudocapacitive NiCo2O4 and conductive PPy, which collectively facilitate electron transfer, promote microbial colonization, and enhance interfacial redox kinetics. This work provides an effective strategy for designing high-performance MFC electrodes with dual functionality in energy storage and power delivery.

Determining the pore structure characteristics and influencing factors of continental shale reservoir in the oil generation stage is of great significance for evaluating the shale oil reservoir space and analyzing shale oil enrichment mechanism. In this paper, shale from the first member of the Upper Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation (K2qn1) in the Songliao Basin was selected. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rock-Eval pyrolysis, total organic carbon content (TOC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen gas adsorption (N2GA), and high-pressure mercury injection (HPMI) were used to clarify the composition characteristics of inorganic minerals and organic matter and determine the influencing factors of pore development in the K2qn1 shale. The results show that intergranular pores related to clay minerals and quartz, intragranular dissolution pores related to feldspar, and other mineral intragranular pores are developed. The organic matter pore is less developed, mainly composed of intragranular pores and crack pores of organic matter. Mesopores related to clay minerals are widely developed, rigid quartz particles can protect and support mesopores and macropores, and carbonate cementation can inhibit pore development. Although the TOC contents of shale are commonly less than 2.5%, it has a good positive correlation with porosity; TOC is greater than 2.5%, and the increase of residual oil fills part of the pores, leading to a decrease in porosity with the increase of TOC. Three types (types I, II, and III) of the reservoir space were classified by the combined pore size distribution diagram of N2GA and HPMI. By comparing the characteristics of pore structure parameters, it is found that Type I reservoir space is favorable for shale oil enrichment. It provides scientific guidance for shale oil exploration in the Songliao Basin.

Water lilies (order Nymphaeales) are rich in both economic and cultural values. They grow into aquatic herbs, and are divided into two ecological types: tropical and hardy. Although tropical water lilies have more ornamental and medicinal values compared to the hardy water lily, the study and utilization of tropical water lilies in both landscaping and pharmaceutical use is greatly hindered due to their limited planting area. Tropical water lilies cannot survive the winter in areas beyond 24.3°N latitude. Here, the transgenic pipeline through the pollen-tube pathway was generated for water lily for the first time. To improve cold stress tolerance of tropical water lilies, a gene encoding choline oxidase ( CodA ) driven by a cold stress-inducible promoter was transformed into a tropical water lily through the pollen-tube transformation. Six independent transgenic lines were tested for survival rate during two winter seasons from 2015 to 2017 in Hangzhou (30.3°N latitude). PCR and southern blot detection revealed that the CodA gene had been integrated into the genome. Reverse transcription PCR showed that CodA gene was induced after cold stress treatment, and further quantitative real-time PCR revealed different expressions among six 4 lines and line 3 had the highest expression. Multiple physiological experiments showed that after cold stress treatment, both the conductivity and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels from transgenic plants were significantly lower than those of non-transgenic plants, whereas the content of betaine and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase were higher than those from non-transgenic plants. These results suggest that expression of exogenous CodA gene significantly improved the cold stress tolerance of tropical water lilies through a wide range of physiological alterations. Our results currently expanded a six-latitude cultivating area of the tropical water lilies. These results not only illuminate the bright future for water lily breeding but will also facilitate the functional genomic studies. Genetics: The crop that came in from the cold Pioneering work in the genetic modification of water lilies lays the foundation for engineering more robust strains of this agriculturally valuable crop. Tropical water lilies are used to manufacture products including tea, food and essential oils, but their cultivation is limited by sensitivity to cold. Researchers led by Fei Chen at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University have developed a genetic engineering procedure for introducing favorable new traits into these plants, offering an efficient alternative to labor-intensive crossbreeding procedures. As an initial demonstration, the researchers engineered tropical water lilies with a gene that confers enhanced cold tolerance, allowing the plants to survive winter temperatures that would otherwise prove inhospitable. This process should accelerate development of lilies that grow in a more diverse range of climates, and enable more extensive genomic analysis of this crop.

Water lilies belong to the angiosperm order Nymphaeales. Amborellales, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales together form the so-called ANA-grade of angiosperms, which are extant representatives of lineages that diverged the earliest from the lineage leading to the extant mesangiosperms 1 – 3 . Here we report the 409-megabase genome sequence of the blue-petal water lily ( Nymphaea colorata ). Our phylogenomic analyses support Amborellales and Nymphaeales as successive sister lineages to all other extant angiosperms. The N. colorata genome and 19 other water lily transcriptomes reveal a Nymphaealean whole-genome duplication event, which is shared by Nymphaeaceae and possibly Cabombaceae. Among the genes retained from this whole-genome duplication are homologues of genes that regulate flowering transition and flower development. The broad expression of homologues of floral ABCE genes in N. colorata might support a similarly broadly active ancestral ABCE model of floral organ determination in early angiosperms. Water lilies have evolved attractive floral scents and colours, which are features shared with mesangiosperms, and we identified their putative biosynthetic genes in N. colorata . The chemical compounds and biosynthetic genes behind floral scents suggest that they have evolved in parallel to those in mesangiosperms. Because of its unique phylogenetic position, the N. colorata genome sheds light on the early evolution of angiosperms. The genome of the tropical blue-petal water lily Nymphaea colorata and the transcriptomes from 19 other Nymphaeales species provide insights into the early evolution of angiosperms.

In this study, a carbon felt (CF)-based ternary composite anode was developed through the decoration of nickel cobaltite (NiCo[sub.2]O[sub.4]) nano-needles and subsequent in situ electropolymerization of polypyrrole (PPy). The structural and electrochemical properties of the modified electrodes were systematically characterized. The CF/NiCo[sub.2]O[sub.4]/PPy anode demonstrated significantly enhanced bioelectrochemical activity, achieving a peak current density of 96.0 A/m[sup.2] and a steady-state current density of 28.9 A/m[sup.2], which were 4.85 and 5.90 times higher than those of bare carbon felt, respectively. Geobacteriaceae is a type of electrogenic bacteria. It was hardly detected on the bare CF substrate; however, in the ternary CF/NiCo2O4/PPy electrode, the relative abundance of Geobacteriaceae significantly increased to 43%. Moreover, the composite electrode exhibited superior charge storage performance, with a total charge (Q[sub.t]) of 32,509.0 C/m[sup.2] and a stored charge (Q[sub.s]) of 3609.0 C/m[sup.2] measured under a 1000 s charging/discharging period. The MFC configured with the CF/NiCo[sub.2]O[sub.4]/PPy anode reached a maximum power density of 1901.25 mW/m[sup.2] at an external resistance of 200 Ω, nearly six times that of the unmodified CF-based MFC. These improvements are attributed to the synergistic interaction between the pseudocapacitive NiCo[sub.2]O[sub.4] and conductive PPy, which collectively facilitate electron transfer, promote microbial colonization, and enhance interfacial redox kinetics. This work provides an effective strategy for designing high-performance MFC electrodes with dual functionality in energy storage and power delivery.

Water lilies are not only highly favored aquatic ornamental plants with cultural and economic importance but they also occupy a critical evolutionary space that is crucial for understanding the origin and early evolutionary trajectory of flowering plants. The birth and rapid radiation of flowering plants has interested many scientists and was considered ‘an abominable mystery’ by Charles Darwin. In searching for the angiosperm evolutionary origin and its underlying mechanisms, the genome of Amborella has shed some light on the molecular features of one of the basal angiosperm lineages; however, little is known regarding the genetics and genomics of another basal angiosperm lineage, namely, the water lily. In this study, we reviewed current molecular research and note that water lily research has entered the genomic era. We propose that the genome of the water lily is critical for studying the contentious relationship of basal angiosperms and Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’. Four pantropical water lilies, especially the recently sequenced Nymphaea colorata, have characteristics such as small size, rapid growth rate and numerous seeds and can act as the best model for understanding the origin of angiosperms. The water lily genome is also valuable for revealing the genetics of ornamental traits and will largely accelerate the molecular breeding of water lilies. Plant evolution: Advancing the abominable As one of the first diverging branches of flowering plants, waterlilies, beautiful aquatic flowers, may hold the key to the origin of these remarkable organisms. The rise of the angiosperms (flowering plants) occurred suddenly, rapidly and mysteriously, prompting Charles Darwin to term it an ‘abominable mystery.’ Liangsheng Zhang and colleagues at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China, review how recent advances in genetic and genomic studies have narrowed down the first branching groups of the angiosperm family tree to three groups: a small New Caledonian tree, Amborella, a group of about 100 woody plant species known as Austrobaileyales, and the waterlilies. However, precise relationships among these groups remain unclear. The first waterlily genome to be sequenced will have great potential to shed light on the origin of angiosperms, as well as contribute to tools for breeding ornamental waterlilies.

Dymethyl ether (DME) is of industrial interest since it is used as a precursor in many other chemical processes and it can be used as fuel in diesel engines. Nowadays, the main route to produce DME is a two-step process in which a methanol dehydration unit is connected to a methanol synthesis plant (indirect synthesis). Combining methanol synthesis and dehydration in a single reactor (direct synthesis) has attracted significant attention in recent years as it offers a theoretically higher syngas conversion per pass but leads to a more challenging downstream separation. The main contribution of this paper is a model-based comparison between an indirect DME process and two direct DME processes: a standard reactor/separation/recycle process and a once-through configuration where the unreacted syngas is used to co-produce electricity. The key-performance indicators in our analysis are the break-even price of DME, the carbon efficiency, and the energy return on energy invested. The results suggest that indirect and direct DME synthesis have similar performances both in economic terms, and in carbon and energy efficiencies terms.

In this paper, a generic method based on fuzzy aggregation operator for multi-criterion decision-making problems in design for additive manufacturing is proposed. Firstly, a fuzzy power weighted Maclaurin symmetric mean operator based on Hamacher T-norm and T-conorm is constructed via a combination of fuzzy numbers, power average operator, weights, Maclaurin symmetric mean operator, and operational rules of fuzzy numbers based on Hamacher T-norm and T-conorm. Based on the constructed operator, a generic method for solving the multi-criterion decision-making problems in design for additive manufacturing is then developed. After that, an example of additive manufacturing machine and material selection and an example of optimal build direction selection are introduced to illustrate the developed method. Finally, a set of numerical experiments are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness and capabilities of the method. The demonstration results suggest that the method can effectively solve a multi-criterion decision-making problem in design for additive manufacturing and has the characteristics in considering the interactions of criteria, reducing the effect of noise criterion values, and capturing the risk attitude of decision-makers.

1. Climate and land-use change are expected to substantially alter future plant species distributions leading to higher extinction rates. However, little is known about how plant species ranges, richness and phylogenetic diversity of continents will be affected by these dynamics. 2. We address this gap here by examining the patterns of species' distributions and phylogenetic relationships for 7465 seed plant taxa in North America. An ensemble of species distribution models was used to estimate the potential suitable habitat of species under different sets of climate, land-use and dispersal constraint scenarios. We then evaluated the vulnerability and extinction risk of individual species to changes in climate and land use, and examined whether rare, endangered and evolutionarily distinct species were disproportionally threatened by climate and land-use change. 3. We show that ~2000 species may lose > 80% of their suitable habitats under the A1b emission scenario for the 2080s, while ~100 species may experience > 80% range expansions (a 20 : 1 ratio of loss to gain). When considering > 50% range retraction and expansion, the ratio of loss to gain was 13 : 1. A greater loss of species diversity is expected at low latitudes, while larger gains are expected at high latitudes. Evolutionarily distinct species are predicted to have significantly higher extinction risks than extant species. This suggests a disproportionate future loss of phylogenetic diversity for the North American flora. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our study provides continental-scale evidence of plant species extinction risk caused by future climate and land-use change, and highlights the importance of integrating phylogenetic measures into conservation risk assessments. This work provides insight into the status, trends and threats for a large share of North America's plant species by identifying risks and prioritizing conservation in a rapidly changing world.

Background: Retinoid-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate retinoid metabolism and signaling, but their roles across human cancers remain incompletely defined. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive analysis using bioinformatics tools and experimental validations, examining RBP expression profiles across cancer types based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We employed survival analysis using the Kaplan–Meier method and utilized single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to investigate the roles of RBP4 and RBP7 in the tumor microenvironment. Results: Our analysis revealed significant downregulation of RBPs in multiple cancers, with RBP4 and RBP7 showing notable expression variations linked to tumor stages and grades. Cox analysis identified RBP4 as a protective gene in kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP), liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), and mesothelioma (MESO), while RBP7 exhibited protective effects in breast cancer (BRCA) and uveal melanoma (UVM). Conclusions: This pan-cancer and single-cell integrative analysis highlights the complex roles of RBPs in cancer progression and their potential as prognostic biomarkers, particularly RBP4 and RBP7 in breast cancer. These findings warrant further investigation into the functional mechanisms of RBPs, which may provide valuable strategies for therapeutic interventions.