Research on school-family-community inter-coupling education model with skill-building approach in China

School-Family-Community Inter-coupling Education Model is to explore and construct an experiential learning mechanism for public benefit education (service learning), with students in the center, on the cornerstone of family education, driven by school education, propped by community education and bonded through service activities, with the aim to open up a pathway for youth education reform suitable for China’s circumstance. Students are the key players in observing, researching and/or identifying public affairs issues and needs from their own perspectives under the guidance of teachers, parents and community leaders, taking initiatives to improve the public affairs around family, school and community through participating, cooperating, serving, reflecting and using their own means. Meanwhile, students can build skills in communicating, cooperating, learning, taking initiatives, serving, and etc. The breakthrough of this experiential education model into the test-oriented school system in China will be realized by developing a series of coursework and a compatible evaluation matrix system in the curricula, easy for administrators and teachers to operate, students to take actions, parents and community leaders to assist, and are adaptable to all grade levels. Our pilot trials and research at primary school levels for the past two years will move up to higher grade levels gradually as the participating students move up

Crystalline structures and crystallization behaviors of poly(L-lactide) in poly(L-lactide)/graphene nanosheet composites

GNS existence in PLLA favors α′ crystal formation more than α crystal formation resulting in a shift of α′–α crystal formation transition toward high Tcs.</p

Transcriptome Analysis Provides Valuable Insights into Leaf Size Variation in <i>Rhamnus heterophylla</i>

The size of leaves is a vital factor in the development and overall biomass of a plant, serving as a key indicator of how a plant adapts to its environment. Rhamnus heterophylla, a species known for its heteromorphic leaves of varying sizes, presents an intriguing case for studying leaf development at the molecular level. To gain insights for further studies on the underlying mechanisms, we constructed a comprehensive reference transcriptome database using both SMART sequencing and Illumina RNA-seq technologies. Our analysis of the transcriptome data identified 88,546 isoforms, featuring an N50 size of 2386 base pairs. Furthermore, we identified 2932 transcription factors from 55 gene families, along with 14,947 unigenes that underwent alternative splicing. By comparing the gene expression patterns between large and small leaves, we pinpointed 982 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Among these DEGs, 116 genes exhibit significantly greater activity in small leaves, while 866 genes display significantly greater activity in large leaves. Functional enrichment analyses revealed the significant involvement of these DEGs in various hormone signaling pathways. Notably, we detected a significant decrease in the expression of several genes associated with auxin synthesis, such as ARFs, GRF8, and IAA27, in small leaves. This finding sheds light on their potential role in leaf size regulation in R. heterophylla, providing valuable insights into the genes underlying this mechanism

Ce0.7Bi0.3O1.85-(La0.8Sr0.2)(0.9)MnO3-Y0.16Zr0.84O1.(92) ternary cathodes for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells

The ternary cathodes of Ce0.7Bi0.3O1.85-(La0.8Sr0.2)(0.9)MnO3-Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 (BDC-LSM-YSZ) are fabricated through infiltration for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells. The infiltrated BDC particles are 10-20 nm in size and cover on LSM and YSZ particles. The 10 wt% and 20 wt% BDC-LSM-YSZ samples show a large peak for the desorption of surface oxygen species and a large peak for the evolution of lattice oxygen, reflecting their good redox property. 0.1BDC-LSM-YSZ cell and 0.2BDC-LSM-YSZ cell give the power density at 0.6 V of 387.8 and 521.7 mWcm(-2) at 600 degrees C, which is 3.7 and 4.9 times higher than that of LSM-YSZ cell, respectively. 0.1BDC-LSM-YSZ cell and 0.2BDC-LSM-YSZ cell exhibit low ohmic resistance and low total polarization resistance. The DRT analysis reveals that charge transfer reaction and surface diffusion are greatly accelerated on the BDC-LSM-YSZ cathodes. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Research on Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a N-Butanol Combined Injection SI Engine

Using n-butanol as an alternative fuel can effectively alleviate the increasingly prominent problems of fossil resource depletion and environmental pollution. Combined injection technology can effectively improve engine combustion and emission characteristics while applying combined injection technology to n-butanol engines has not been studied yet. Therefore, this study adopted butanol port injection plus butanol direct injection mode. The engine test bench studied the combustion and emission performance under different direct injection ratios (NDIr) and excess air ratios (λ). Results show that with increasing NDIr, the engine torque (Ttq), peak in-cylinder pressure (Pmax), peak in-cylinder temperature (Tmax), and the maximum rate of heat release (dQmax), all rise first and then drop, reaching the maximum value at NDIr = 20%. The θ0-90 and COVIMEP decrease first and then increase as NDIr increases. NDIr = 20% is considered the best injection ratio to obtain the optimal combustion performance. NDIr has little affected on CO emission, and the NDIr corresponding to the lowest HC emissions are concentrated at 40% to 60%, especially at lean burn conditions. NOx emissions increase with increasing NDIr, especially at N20DI, but not by much at NDIr of 40–80%. With the increase in NDIr, the number of nucleation mode particles, accumulation mode particles, and total particle decrease first and then increase. Therefore, the n-butanol combined injection mode with the appropriate NDIr can effectively optimize SI engines’ combustion and emission performance

Efficient CO2 electroreduction on a solid oxide electrolysis cell with La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-delta-Gd0.2Ce0.8O2-delta infiltrated electrode

Solid oxide electrolysis cells are promising electrochemical devices for converting CO2 to useful products with high efficiency and simultaneously storing renewable energy. We here report a cell infiltrated with La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-delta-Gd0.2Ce0.8O2-delta composite on yttria-stabilized zirconia scaffold as cathode and anode for CO2 electroreduction. The cell delivers a current density of -1.01 A cm(-2) at 1.4 V and 800 degrees C, along with an CO production rate of 6.95 mL min(-1) cm(-2) and a Faraday efficiency of 98.8%. CO2 electroreduction on La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-delta-Gd0.2Ce0.8O2-delta cathode passes through two charge transfer reactions, in which the second charge transfer reaction from the carbonate intermediate reduction to CO is the key rate-dtermining step. The cell also exhibits little performance degradation during a 220 h run under a current density of -0.20 A cm(-2) at 800 degrees C

Evolution of strong reproductive isolation in plants: Broad-scale patterns and lessons from a perennial model group

Many recent studies have addressed the mechanisms operating during the early stages of speciation, but surprisingly few studies have tested theoretical predictions on the evolution of strong reproductive isolation (RI). To help address this gap, we first undertook a quantitative review of the hybrid zone literature for flowering plants in relation to reproductive barriers. Then, using Populus as an exemplary model group, we analysed genome-wide variation for phylogenetic tree topologies in both early- and late-stage speciation taxa to determine how these patterns may be related to the genomic architecture of RI. Our plant literature survey revealed variation in barrier complexity and an association between barrier number and introgressive gene flow. Focusing on Populus, our genome-wide analysis of tree topologies in speciating poplar taxa points to unusually complex genomic architectures of RI, consistent with earlier genome-wide association studies. These architectures appear to facilitate the ‘escape’ of introgressed genome segments from polygenic barriers even with strong RI, thus affecting their relationships with recombination rates. Placed within the context of the broader literature, our data illustrate how phylogenomic approaches hold great promise for addressing the evolution and temporary breakdown of RI during late stages of speciation

Charge Transfer Reactions in CO2 Electroreduction on Manganese Doped Ceria

The key to electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels lies in effient charge transfer reactions. Here, we depict from the polarzation resistance analysis that the electroreduction of CO2 to CO on manganese doped ceria (CMO) passes through two elementary charge transfer reactions. One reaction is asscociated with (CO3)(O,S)(center dot) to (CO3)(O,S)(center dot) and another associated with (CO3)(O,S)(center dot). O; S to CO. As the rate determing step, the first one has an apparenent acitvation energy of 178.7 kJ mol(-1) and a pressure dependence of (PCO2PCO0.24)-P-0.76. The second one has an apparent acitvation energy of 100.6 kJ mol(-1) and a pressure dependence of (PCO2PCO0.73)-P-0.27. Based on the experimental results, we give the kenetic expression for the CO2 electroreduction rate on CMO