An active Ni(OH)/MnCO catalyst with efficient synergism for alkaline methanol oxidation.

A novel Ni(OH)/MnCO hybrid catalyst was developed for high-performing alkaline methanol electro-oxidation, which could well overcome the shortages of inactive MnCO and low intrinsic Ni(OH) due to the good synergistic catalysis effect from the Jahn-Teller distortion effect.

Microplastics perturb colonic epithelial homeostasis associated with intestinal overproliferation, exacerbating the severity of colitis.

A great amount of the population died due to living or working in an unhealthy environment, highlighting the critical role of environmental pollutants in inducing diseases. Microplastics are widespread environmental pollutants and have been found in various tissues of human beings, yet the risk of microplastics in the occurrence of disease, especially environmentally-related colitis, is unclear. This study focused on the effects of microplastics exposure on intestinal homeostasis and the initiation of colitis.

MA RNA Methylation Mediates NOD1/NF-kB Signaling Activation in the Liver of Piglets Challenged with Lipopolysaccharide.

N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most abundant internal modification that widely participates in various immune and inflammatory responses; however, its regulatory mechanisms in the inflammation of liver induced by lipopolysaccharide in piglets remain largely unknown. In the present study, piglets were intraperitoneally injected with 80 μg/kg LPS or an equal dose of sterile saline. Results indicated that LPS administration increased activities of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), induced M1 macrophage polarization and promoted secretion of inflammatory cytokines, and finally led to hepatic lesions in piglets.

Effect of Bacillus coagulans on maintaining the integrity intestinal mucosal barrier in broilers.

Bacillus coagulans (B. coagulans), a spore-forming bacteria, has been further studied for its high tolerance to extreme environmental stressors and probiotic characteristics. But the modulatory effect of B.

Earliest parietal art: hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet.

At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft travertine. The travertine was deposited by water from a hot spring which is now inactive and as the travertine lithified it preserved the traces. On the basis of the sizes of the hand and foot traces, we suggest that two track-makers were involved and were likely children.

A review of current and emerging approaches for Quaternary marine sediment dating.

Dating methodologies for Quaternary marine sediments play increasingly important roles in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and paleoclimate in (paleo)oceanography. Previous reviews or studies have focused mainly on one or two methodologies, and their applications in one specific environment. With the continuing technological and methodological advances in different methods over the past few decades, an up-to-date comparison of the pros and cons of each dating methodology is needed to clearly understand their applications in marine geoscience research.

Discovering the forbidden Raman modes at the edges of layered materials.

The edges of layered materials have unique properties that substantially differ from the body regions. In this work, we perform a systematic Raman study of the edges of various layered materials (MoS, WS, WSe, PtS, and black phosphorus). The Raman spectra of the edges feature newly observed forbidden Raman modes, which are originally undetectable from the body region.

An updated age for the Xujiayao hominin from the Nihewan Basin, North China: Implications for Middle Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia.

The Xujiayao site in the Nihewan Basin (North China) is one of the most important Paleolithic sites in East Asia. Twenty Homo fossils, which were previously assigned to an archaic Homo sapiens group, have been excavated along with more than 30,000 lithic artifacts and ∼5000 mammalian fossil specimens. Dating of the Xujiayao hominin has been pursued since its excavation in the 1970s, but its age has remained controversial because of limitations of the dating techniques that have been applied to available materials.

Real-Time Observation of the Electrode-Size-Dependent Evolution Dynamics of the Conducting Filaments in a SiO Layer.

Conducting bridge random access memory (CBRAM) is one of the most promising candidates for future nonvolatile memories. It is important to understand the scalability and retention of CBRAM cells to realize better memory performance. Here, we directly observe the switching dynamics of Cu tip/SiO/W cells with various active electrode sizes using in situ transmission electron microscopy.

Distinctive in-Plane Cleavage Behaviors of Two-Dimensional Layered Materials.

Mechanical exfoliation from bulk layered crystal is widely used for preparing two-dimensional (2D) layered materials, which involves not only out-of-plane interlayer cleavage but also in-plane fracture. Through a statistical analysis on the exfoliated 2D flakes, we reveal the in-plane cleavage behaviors of six representative layered materials, including graphene, h-BN, 2H phase MoS2, 1T phase PtS2, FePS3, and black phosphorus. In addition to the well-known interlayer cleavage, these 2D layered materials show a distinctive tendency to fracture along certain in-plane crystallography orientations.

ESR dating of the Majuangou and Banshan Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin, North China.

The fluvio-lacustrine sequences in the Nihewan Basin, northern China provide an important source of Paleolithic settlements and therefore early human occupation in the eastern Old World. Here we present electron spin resonance (ESR) chronology for the Majuangou (MJG-III, MJG-II and MJG-I) and Banshan (BS) Paleolithic sites in this basin by the quartz Ti-Li center ESR dating. Results show that the ages of MJG-III and MJG-II could be estimated to be ∼1.

Monitoring and control of UV and UV-TiO2 disinfections for municipal wastewater reclamation using artificial neural networks.

The use of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation as a physical wastewater disinfection has increased in recent years, especially for wastewater reuse. The UV-TiO(2) can generate OH radicals, which is highly effective to inactivate microorganisms in wastewater disinfection. However, both UV and UV-TiO(2) disinfections create multiple physical, chemical, and bio-chemical phenomena that affect their germicidal efficiency.