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The direct discharge of boron mud poses significant environmental hazards to soil and groundwater. Despite extensive research efforts, the reprocessing of boron mud has not yielded significant advancements. Recently, the development of magnesium cement has spurred interest in the reutilization of boron mud. However, the direct treatment of boron mud remains challenging, necessitating pre-treatment in most studies to achieve substantial results. Consequently, research on the direct incorporation of untreated boron mud is scarce. This study explores the feasibility of using uncalcined boron mud as a base material in basic magnesium sulfate cement (BMSC), composed of lightly calcined magnesia and magnesium sulfate heptahydrate. The effects of varying boron mud content on the compressive strength of the BMSC system were investigated. The results indicate that the 5·1·7 phase is the primary strength phase of BMSC. When the boron mud content is 30%, the uncalcined boron mud has a minimal impact on the formation of the 5·1·7 phase. Additionally, the 28 days compressive strength of BMSC-B30 showed a slight difference compared to the control group BMSC-C, registering at 66.7 MPa. TG-DSC analysis revealed that the presence of a small amount of boron mud inhibits the micro-expansion trend of the BMSC structure. Furthermore, XRD and SEM analyses confirmed that the addition of uncalcined boron mud does not significantly alter the phase structure of the 5·1·7 phase in BMSC. This study provides a foundational basis for the long-term development of direct boron mud treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of bifunctional electrocatalysts to overcome the slow kinetics of the oxygen reduction–evolution reaction (ORR/OER) remains a significant challenge. Therefore, combined with morphology control engineering and bimetallic doping strategies, Fe and Co bimetals are effectively doped into carbon nanotube-coated three-dimensional porous materials, and a cost-effective bifunctional oxygen-electrode material is successfully prepared. The synthesized Fe25–NZ8@Co500-CN catalysts show high electrocatalytic activity in both ORR (E1/2 = 0.85 V) and OER (ηj=10 = 350 mV). Furthermore, the zinc-air battery is assembled with the Fe25–NZ8@Co500-CN catalyst as the air electrode, which has an excellent power density of 183.65 mW cm–2, a specific capacity of 699.2 mA h gZn–1, and a long-term stability of 200 h. This newly synthesized bimetallic-doped catalyst offers a design option for oxygen electrocatalysts in zinc–air batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intelligent warehouse is a modern logistics management system that uses technologies like the Internet of Things, robots, and artificial intelligence to realize automated management and optimize warehousing operations. The multi-robot system (MRS) is an important carrier for implementing an intelligent warehouse, which completes various tasks in the warehouse through cooperation and coordination between robots. As an extension of reinforcement learning and a kind of swarm intelligence, MARL (multi-agent reinforcement learning) can effectively create the multi-robot systems in intelligent warehouses. However, MARL-based multi-robot systems in intelligent warehouses face serious safety issues, such as collisions, conflicts, and congestion. To deal with these issues, this paper proposes a safe MARL method based on runtime verification, i.e., an optimized safety policy-generation framework, for multi-robot systems in intelligent warehouses. The framework consists of three stages. In the first stage, a runtime model SCMG (safety-constrained Markov Game) is defined for the multi-robot system at runtime in the intelligent warehouse. In the second stage, rPATL (probabilistic alternating-time temporal logic with rewards) is used to express safety properties, and SCMG is cyclically verified and refined through runtime verification (RV) to ensure safety. This stage guarantees the safety of robots' behaviors before training. In the third stage, the verified SCMG guides SCPO (safety-constrained policy optimization) to obtain an optimized safety policy for robots. Finally, a multi-robot warehouse (RWARE) scenario is used for experimental evaluation. The results show that the policy obtained by our framework is safer than existing frameworks and includes a certain degree of optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) can be coupled with renewable energy power generation technology and is considered to be a highly promising hydrogen production technology. However, the acidic electrolyte environment, as well as the numerous sulfonic acid groups on the proton exchange membrane surface, can seriously corrode the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst and even cause deactivation. To develop an efficient acidic OER catalyst, the IrOx/WO3 heterostructure OER catalyst was prepared by a hydrothermal-calcination method. The coordination environment of IrOx was regulated through the electronic rearrangement effect, improving the OER activity and stability of the catalyst in acidic media. The prepared IrOx/WO3 exhibits excellent OER activity in 0.5 M H2SO4, with an overpotential of only 260 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a mass activity of 176.8 A gIr−1. It can stably operate for over 12 hours at a current density of j = 10 mA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) is still limited by the prohibitive cost and scarcity of iridium (Ir)‐based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst. This work presents a novel catalyst synthesized by precursor‐atomization and rapid joule‐heating method, successfully doping iridium atoms into polyvalent tungsten blends (W0, W5+, W6+) based on titanium substrate. The vacancy engineering of unsaturated tungsten oxide (W5+, W6+) reconstructs the electronic structure of the catalyst surface, which resulting in the low‐valence state iridium species, avoiding excessive oxidation of iridium and accelerating the catalytic kinetics. Meanwhile, metallic tungsten (W0) improves the conductivity of catalyst and guarantees the stable existence of oxygen vacancy. The TiIrWOx possesses excellent performance in acidic OER catalysis, requiring overpotential of only 181 mV to drive 10.0 mA cm−2, and exhibiting a high mass activity of 753 A gIr−1 at an overpotential of 300 mV. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with TiIrWOx as anode electrocatalyst can reduce the Ir consumption amount by >60% compared to commercial IrO2, and it can operated over 120 h at a current density of 1.0 A cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential of using corn stover, a byproduct of corn production, for bioethanol production. The main obstacle in utilizing corn stover is its high lignin content, which hinders the fermentation process. Researchers have identified a maize mutant, ZmNST2, with reduced lignin content and have evaluated its potential for bioethanol production. The mutant has shown promising results, with lower lignin content and improved efficiency in saccharification and fermentation compared to the wild-type maize. This research provides valuable insights into the genetic factors that can enhance the use of corn stover for bioethanol production. The study was funded by various research programs in China. [Extracted from the article]

Lodging largely affects yield, quality and mechanical harvesting of maize. Stalk strength is one of the major factors that affect maize lodging. Although plant cell wall components including lignin and cellulose were known to be associated with stalk strength and lodging resistance, spatial accumulation of specific lignin monomers and cellulose in different tissues and their association with stalk strength in maize was not clearly understood. In this study, we found that both G and S lignin monomers accumulate highest in root, stem rind and leaf vein. Consistently, most lignin biosynthetic genes were expressed higher in root and stem than in other tissues. However, cellulose appears to be lowest in root. There are only mild changes of G lignin and cellulose in different internodes. Instead, we noticed a dramatic decrease of S-lignin accumulation and lignin biosynthetic gene expression in 2 nd to 4 th internodes wherein stem breakage usually occurs, thereby revealing a few candidate lignin biosynthetic genes associated with stalk strength. Moreover, stalk strength is positively correlated with G, S lignin, and cellulose, but negatively correlated with S/G ratio based on data of maize lines with high or low stalk strength. Loss-of-function of a caffeic acid o-methyltransferase (COMT), which is involved in S lignin biosynthesis, in the maize bm3 mutant, leads to lower stalk strength. Our data collectively suggest that stalk strength is determined by tissue-specific accumulation of lignin monomers and cellulose, and manipulation of the cell wall components by genetic engineering is vital to improve maize stalk strength and lodging resistance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Copine proteins are highly conserved and ubiquitously found in eukaryotes, and their indispensable roles in different species were proposed. However, their exact function remains unclear. The phytohormone brassinosteroids (BRs) play vital roles in plant growth, development and environmental responses. A key event in effective BR signaling is the formation of functional BRI1-SERK receptor complex and subsequent transphosphorylation upon ligand binding. Here, we demonstrate that BONZAI (BON) proteins, which are plasma membrane-associated copine proteins, are critical components of BR signaling in both the monocot maize and the dicot Arabidopsis. Biochemical and molecular analyses reveal that BON proteins directly interact with SERK kinases, thereby ensuring effective BRI1-SERK interaction and transphosphorylation. This study advances the knowledge on BR signaling and provides an important target for optimizing valuable agronomic traits, it also opens a way to study steroid hormone signaling and copine proteins of eukaryotes in a broader perspective., (© 2024. The Author(s).)