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China, being the largest contributor to total carbon emissions, still has a long way to go in energy conservation and emission reduction. Employing the structural decomposition analysis (SDA) method and using input-output table data, this study examines the evolution of carbon emissions resulting from energy consumption in Gansu Province in China over the period 2007 to 2017. By exploring carbon emission driving factors and identifying key final demand and sectors for carbon emissions, Gansu province can formulate more effective emission reduction policies that can balance economic development and carbon emission control. The key findings are as follows: 1) Regarding the driving factors, both the energy intensity effect and the demand sector structure effect emerge as the main contributors to emission reduction. Conversely, the total demand effect and the input-output structure effect predominantly led to emission increase. 2) In terms of each final demand, urban residents' consumption, rural residents' consumption and outflow represent the primary categories contributing to increased emissions. 3) The sectors experiencing the most significant decline in carbon emissions and carbon intensity are Electricity, Heat Production and Supply Industry, while Metal Smelting and Rolling Processing Industry as well as Construction Industry are the primary contributors to increasing emissions. Consequently, to achieve the carbon neutrality goal, Gansu governments should consider all these factors and propose mitigation policies in light of the local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a new method of preparing gadolinium oxide by citric acid-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis combined calcination process was investigated. During the pretreatment process, the loose morphology of the precursor was obtained, which could be conducive to the escape of gases from the reaction. And the formation mechanism of the gadolinium oxide shows that citric acid dramatically reduced the calcination temperature required for GdOCl to convert to Gd2O3. In particular, the optimum mass ratio of citric acid to GdCl3 should exceed 1:2. After the calcination process, the Gd2O3 powders with a purity of 99 wt% were obtained. Importantly, we further verified the feasibility of this process in industrial production by using the factory acid-containing extract as raw material. The results of industrial experiments show that this method can eliminate the traditional precipitation process and has the potential to replace the existing industrial processes. To effectively preparing the gadolinium oxide, a novel process using citric acid-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Praseodymium‐neodymium‐oxide powder was prepared using a simple citric acid‐assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. The rare‐earth oxide transformation process and temperature were clarified using the characterisation results. The results show that a sufficient mass ratio of citric acid can promote the decomposition of chlorine oxides produced during calcination. This favourable change is attributed to the unique composition and morphology of the precursors. Furthermore, the residual chlorine content and migration behaviour in the praseodymium‐neodymium‐oxide powder were studied and discussed. This study provides the necessary theoretical and experimental basis for the application of ultrasonic spray pyrolysis technology for rare‐earth oxide production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oxygen evolution reaction is a key step in controlling the efficiency and stability of water electrolysis. The development of high-efficiency, energy-saving catalysts that can be used at an industrial scale is currently a major challenge. In this paper, the complex reaction of oxalic acid, ferrous chloride, and cobalt chloride in N,N-dimethylacetamide solution is used to generate an oxalic acid complex, which is then glued with polyvinylpyrrolidone and sintered to generate a bimetallic alloy catalyst. According to electrochemical tests, the obtained FeCo-2K30 has excellent activity and stability in alkaline electrolytes. Specifically, FeCo-2K30 has an overpotential of 313 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 58 mV dec−1. Its catalytic performance is comparable to that of noble metal electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition metal oxides with spinel structures prepared using the traditional method have defects, including a small specific surface area, large particle size and poor conductivity. These defects considerably limit their catalytic activity in oxygen evolution reactions (OERs). This study involves the preparation of manganese iron oxide modified using flaky cobalt phosphide. The obtained product exhibits good OER catalytic performance in a 1 M alkaline solution, which shows a low overpotential of 320 mV for the OER at 50 mA cm−2. Furthermore, modified manganese iron oxide exhibits a low Tafel slope of 65.58 mVdec−1. After the introduction of flaky cobalt phosphide, the increase of the active area and conductivity of manganese iron oxide significantly improves the OER performance of the sample. The OER performance of transition metal oxides with spinel structures can be further improved using the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolutionarily conserved target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase acts as a master regulator that coordinates cell proliferation and growth by integrating nutrient, energy, hormone and stress signals in all eukaryotes1,2. Research has focused mainly on TOR-regulated translation, but how TOR orchestrates the global transcriptional network remains unclear. Here we identify ethylene-insensitive protein 2 (EIN2), a central integrator3–5 that shuttles between the cytoplasm and the nucleus, as a direct substrate of TOR in Arabidopsis thaliana. Glucose-activated TOR kinase directly phosphorylates EIN2 to prevent its nuclear localization. Notably, the rapid global transcriptional reprogramming that is directed by glucose–TOR signalling is largely compromised in the ein2-5 mutant, and EIN2 negatively regulates the expression of a wide range of target genes of glucose-activated TOR that are involved in DNA replication, cell wall and lipid synthesis and various secondary metabolic pathways. Chemical, cellular and genetic analyses reveal that cell elongation and proliferation processes that are controlled by the glucose–TOR–EIN2 axis are decoupled from canonical ethylene–CTR1–EIN2 signalling, and mediated by different phosphorylation sites. Our findings reveal a molecular mechanism by which a central signalling hub is shared but differentially modulated by diverse signalling pathways using distinct phosphorylation codes that can be specified by upstream protein kinases.In Arabidopsis, phosphorylation of EIN2 by TOR kinase in the presence of glucose prevents the nuclear localization of EIN2, showing that the glucose–TOR–EIN2 axis regulates the transcriptome independently of ethylene signalling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Co-IP has been widely used to examine I in vivo i protein-protein interactions, especially for strong and stable protein interactions, it needs to be performed with great experimental caution for weak or transient interactions, such as those that occur between a kinase and its substrates. Under normal conditions, TOR kinase phosphorylates ABA receptors (PYR1/PYL/RCARs) to abolish their ABA binding ability, thereby preventing stress signaling activation and promoting plant growth. In the presence of abscisic acid or environmental stress, activated SnRK2s transiently phosphorylate Raptor1B, a regulatory component of the TOR complex, to inhibit plant growth. As phosphorylation of hundreds of proteins has been shown to be dependent on SnRK2s (Umezawa et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2013, 2018, 2020), it is not surprising there are other kinases/signal components that can mediate stress adaptation processes downstream of SnRK2s. [Extracted from the article]

The multidomain target of rapamycin (TOR) is an atypical serine/threonine protein kinase resembling phosphatidylinositol lipid kinases, but retains high sequence identity and serves a remarkably conserved role as a master signalling integrator in yeasts, plants, and humans. TOR dynamically orchestrates cell metabolism, biogenesis, organ growth, and development transitions in response to nutrient, energy, hormone, and environmental cues. Here we review recent findings on the versatile and complex roles of TOR in transcriptome reprogramming, seedling, root, and shoot growth, and root hair production activated by sugar and energy signalling. We explore how co-ordination of TOR-mediated light and hormone signalling is involved in root and shoot apical meristem activation, proliferation of leaf primordia, cotyledon/leaf greening, and hypocotyl elongation. We also discuss the emerging TOR functions in response to sulfur assimilation and metabolism and consider potential molecular links and positive feedback loops between TOR, sugar, energy, and other essential macronutrients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium-dependent protein kinases are important decoders of calcium signals in plants, which are involved in plant immunity. We report isolation and functional characterization of a pathogen-responsive OsCPK20 gene in rice. The expression of OsCPK20 in rice was significantly induced following treatment with a Magnaporthe grisea elicitor. Overexpression of constitutively active OsCPK20 in Arabidopsis enhanced the resistance to infection with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, associated with elevated expression of both SA- and JA-related defense genes. Similarly, transgenic rice plants containing constitutively active OsCPK20 exhibited enhanced resistance to blast fungus M. grisea. The enhanced resistance in the transgenic Arabidopsis and rice was associated with activated expression of both SA- and JA-related defense genes. We also found that OsCPK20 was significantly induced by drought stress, indicating that OsCPK20 might be involved in plant response to drought stress. Taken together, our results indicate that rice OsCPK20 positively regulates Arabidopsis resistance against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato and rice resistance against M. grisea, and that it may enhance disease resistance by activating both SA- and JA-dependent defense responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyanophages are ecologically abundant, genetically diverse in aquatic environments, and affect the population and evolutionary trajectories of their hosts. After reporting the cyanophage Pf-WMP4 genome (Liu et al. in Virology 366:28–39, ), we hereby present a related cyanophage, Pf-WMP3, which also infects the freshwater cyanobacterium Phormidium foveolarum. The Pf-WMP3 genome contains 43,249 bp with 234 bp direct terminal repeats. The overall genome organization and core genes of the two phages are comparable to those of the T7 supergroup phages. Compared with Pf-WMP4, cyanophage Pf-WMP3 has diverged extensively at the DNA level; however, they are closely related at the protein level and genome architecture. The left arm genes for the two phages, which mainly encode the DNA replication machinery, are not conserved in the gene order. Whereas the right arm genes of the two phages coding for structural proteins show high similarity in amino acid sequences and modular architecture, indicating that they have retained similar development strategies. The differences in similarity levels between the left and right arm genes suggest that the structural genes are the most conserved elements for a phage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]