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As an important genotyping platform, SNP chips are essential for implementing genomic selection. In this article, we introduced the development of a liquid SNP chip panel for dairy goats. This panel contains 54,188 SNPs based on genotyping by targeted sequencing (GBTS) technology. The source of SNPs in the panel were from the whole-genome resequencing of 110 dairy goats from three European and two Chinese indigenous dairy goat breeds. The performance of this liquid SNP chip panel was evaluated by genotyping 200 additional goats. Fifteen of them were randomly selected for whole-genome resequencing. The average capture ratio of the panel design loci was 98.41%, and the genotype concordance with resequencing reached 98.02%. We further used this chip panel to conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to detect genetic loci that affect coat color in dairy goats. A single significant association signal for hair color was found on chromosome 8 at 31.52–35.02 Mb. The TYRP1 gene, which is associated with coat color in goats, was identified to be located at this genomic region (chromosome 8: 31,500,048-31,519,064). The emergence of high-precision and low-cost liquid microarrays will improve the analysis of genomics and breeding efficiency of dairy goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-point incremental forming (SPIF) is a sheet forming technique that deforms sheet materials incrementally to a designated shape. The process has shown high ability to deform low-strength materials for good geometrical accuracy and formability at room temperature. Deforming high-temperature alloys, such as high-strength steels and Ti-6AI-4 V, requires integrated heat sources to increase the ductility of the metal sheets for deformation. However, the integration of heating results in unpredictable thermal behaviours and impacts the formability, geometric accuracy, thickness distribution and surface quality. Considerable research efforts have invented different heating methods and designed novel tools and analytical modelling to resolve the limitations. The current challenge remains improving the localised and stable heating, functional tool design to reduce the thermal expansion and friction at the tool-surface contact area and the analysis of relationship between thermal and mechanical effects. This study aims to review the heating-assisted SPIF systems for high-strength alloy sheets to solve the current limitations. The method includes analysis of heating systems, tool, tool path design, lubricants and macro- and micro-numerical analyses. Additionally, the study aims to correlate the microstructural properties to the mechanical behaviours and subsequent effects on forming force, strain, springback, geometrical accuracy and surface quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific surface area and pore structure of carbon materials significantly impact their electrochemical performance. However, carbon materials with a uniform pore structure of micropores, mesopores, and macropores exhibit better capacitance performances. In this study, waste polyurethane was used as the carbon precursor. The polyurethane-based hierarchical porous (micropores–mesopores–macropores) carbon material was prepared by MgO template co-carbonization and KOH activation. The specific surface area and pore structure of the hierarchical porous carbon were optimized by changing the amount of magnesium acetate template and the activation temperature of KOH. The structure and composition of hierarchical porous carbon materials were characterized, and their supercapacitor performance was also tested. The results show that the hierarchical porous carbon material (PUHPC-700) has a uniform pore size distribution. Moreover, PUHPC-700 exhibited excellent supercapacitor performance, and its specific capacitance can reach 310 F g−1 (0.5 A g−1). This work provides a strategy to solve the complex problem of waste polyurethane by applying it to the production of supercapacitors, which play a dual role in environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive amounts of fluoride in water cause irreversible harm to people and seriously threaten human health. Therefore, fluoride ion in water should be deeply removed. The waste liquor of itaconic acid fermentation contains many organic acids, residual sugars, proteins, and other impurities, which are difficult to remove. Thus, in this study, the itaconic acid fermentation waste liquid was successfully mixed with urea to prepare N-doped porous carbon (PC-N). The prepared PC-N was applied for the removal of fluoride in water. The specific surface area of PC-N is as high as 1803 m2 g−1, and the SEM results show an abundant pore structure. The FTIR results showed that the adsorbent surface had an abundant functional group structure. The removal rate of F− by PC-N was 91% when pH = 6. After 6 cycles of recycling, PC-N performance remains stable at about 73% of that of the fresh adsorbent. Moreover, Freundlich and PSO can better fit the adsorption data, indicating that F− on PC-N adsorption results from the joint action of physical and chemical adsorption. After calculating the adsorption thermodynamics, ΔH and ΔS are −14.5529 kJ mol−1 and 13.6507 J (mol K)−1, and ΔG is negative, indicating that the adsorption process is exothermic and spontaneous. The outcome results of this work have achieved the goal of "treating waste with waste" and realized the dual protection of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To relate the thermomechanical behaviour and microstructural evolution of the heat-assisted incremental sheet forming (SPIF) for Ti–6Al–4 V sheet, multi-scale models based on crystal plasticity finite element model (CPFEM), representative elementary volume (RVE), and cellular automaton (CA) were established in this article. An experimental-scale CPFEM was built in advance to provide macrograin level strain, strain rate, and temperature output data, which were then used in RVE and CA as inputs to simulate the microstructural evolution throughout the SPIF process. The output results include the pole figures, dynamic recrystallisation (DRX) maps, and statistics results of the alpha (α) phase of the Ti–6Al–4 V (α-Ti) alloy from stage to stage throughout the 700 ∘ C SPIF. The obtained statistics results of dislocation density, grain orientation angles, and grain size were verified with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The CA analysis of the DRX progress at the upper, centre, and lower regions of the deformed workpiece has discovered that the incremental increase of the strain rate has significant effects on the dislocation density that produced a proportional relationship to the DRX percentage. The results revealed that the strain rate has strong domination in affecting the slip of grains orientation, which overcomes the effect of temperature increase in this SPIF process. Furthermore, it was found that a large amount of DRXed grains were generated at the grain boundaries, which reduced the mean grain size and increased the DRX percentage, which produced an inversely proportional relationship to the dislocation density. The thermomechanical behaviour on the SPIF workpiece was increased incrementally, which is insufficient for DRX initiation in the upper region, and the behaviour was enhanced at the centre and lower region, which can be corresponded to the microstructural evolution throughout the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Induction heating-assisted single point incremental sheet forming was established for Ti-6Al-4V thin sheets at closed and above beta-transus temperature (980 °C). In order to eliminate geometric inaccuracy and adherence of lubricant on the surface caused by elevated temperature, a cooling lubricant system was designed for the forming tool to decrease the thermal expansion and friction. A radial basis function (RBF)-based tool path optimisation was developed to study the measured geometric accuracy, temperature, and forming force. By adjusting cooling lubricant control and integrating the RBF framework, the first optimised tool path was used to collect the results and to validate with the finite element (FE) model and theoretical geometric profiles. The output data were further studied by RBF and generate a second optimised tool path. The measured geometric coordinates revealed that the error percentage has been reduced to less than 5%. Further, the microstructure evolution analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated noticeable oxidation and alpha-layer for temperature around 1040 °C and the phenomenon was removed at temperature closed to 950 °C. The surface roughness and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) revealed the optimised tool path distributed significant improvement in surface quality. The cooling lubricant system indicated optimal performance with RBF optimised tool path to support constant temperature and reduce friction and lubricant adherence on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Genetic improvements in feed efficiency (FE) and related traits could considerably reduce pig production costs and energy consumption. Thus, we performed a genetic parameter estimation and genome-wide association study of four FE and FE-related traits, namely, average daily feed intake, average daily gain, the feed conversion ratio, and residual feed intake, of two pig breeds, Yorkshire and Duroc. The results demonstrate the genetic relationships of FE and FE-related traits with two growth traits, age and backfat thickness at 100 kg. We also identified many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and novel candidate genes related to these traits. In addition, we found many pathways significantly associated with FE and FE-related traits, and they are generally involved in digestive and metabolic processes. The results of this study are expected to provide a valuable reference for the genomic selection of FE and FE-related traits in pigs. Feed efficiency (FE) traits are key factors that can influence the economic benefits of pig production. However, little is known about the genetic architecture of FE and FE-related traits. This study aimed to identify SNPs and candidate genes associated with FE and FE-related traits, namely, average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), the feed conversion ratio (FCR), and residual feed intake (RFI). The phenotypes of 5823 boars with genotyped data (50 K BeadChip) from 1365 boars from a nucleus farm were used to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of two breeds, Duroc and Yorkshire. Moreover, we performed a genetic parameter estimation for four FE and FE-related traits. The heritabilities of the FE and FE-related traits ranged from 0.13 to 0.36, and there were significant genetic correlations (−0.69 to 0.52) of the FE and FE-related traits with two growth traits (age at 100 kg and backfat thickness at 100 kg). A total of 61 significant SNPs located on eight different chromosomes associated with the four FE and FE-related traits were identified. We further identified four regions associated with FE and FE-related traits that have not been previously reported, and they may be potential novel QTLs for FE. Considering their biological functions, we finally identified 35 candidate genes relevant for FE and FE-related traits, such as the widely reported MC4R and INSR genes. A gene enrichment analysis showed that FE and FE-related traits were highly enriched in the biosynthesis, digestion, and metabolism of biomolecules. This study deepens our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of FE in pigs and provides valuable information for using marker-assisted selection in pigs to improve FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For heat-assisted single point incremental sheet forming (SPIF) works of Ti-6Al-4 V sheets, the use of lubricant has shown significant effects on surface quality and geometric accuracy at higher temperatures. Molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) is a common lubricant widely used in SPIF works, however, it usually indicates ineffective performance at high temperatures. This article has studied different lubricants of MoS2 lubricants and proposed a novel mixture of MoS2 to provide better surface quality and improve geometric accuracy. A forming tool with a ball-roller and water channel was designed to enable the MoS2 mixture to pass through the tool tip, allowing easy application of the lubricant on the localised area and reduce the thermal expansion on the ball-roller. Surface roughness analysis has revealed that the water-cooling MoS2 mixture performed well in reducing friction effects and achieved better geometric accuracy. Forming forces measurements, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and micro-hardness tests also indicated that a higher strain hardening behaviour was detected for the water-cooling MoS2 mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the synthesis of nickel-based materials (such as nickel sulfides, nickel hydroxides, and nickel oxides) is an urgent need in the fields of batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysis. However, their controlled synthesis still remains a great challenge because of the inadequate understanding of the control factor of their synthesis. A two-step solvo-/hydrothermal process with halide ion embedding/releasing was proposed to understand the effect of the halide ions on the synthesis and sulfidation of nickel hydroxy-halides. We find that the halide ions determine the formation, growth, and evolution of nickel hydroxy halides and promote them to form unique architectures and morphologies, leading to obvious differences in structural characteristics, including conductivity and electrochemical activity. Because of the presence of halide ions, a series of hybrids with multiple interfaces, which consist of hydroxides and sulfides and have various morphologies, such as flower-like balls, solid balls, porous balls, schistose, and thorny balls, with capacities ranging from 100.7 to 261.2 mA h g−1, can be easily obtained. It is fully demonstrated that the halide anion plays a core role in the synthesis process of nickel-based materials, and this finding will provide more chances for controllably synthesizing high-activity electrode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of continuous synthesis of petroleum coke-based potassium ion battery anodes by chemical activation agent cycle was systematically studied. The potassium ions storage performance in the synthesized carbon anode was measured. High‑sulfur petroleum coke, as a natural sulfur-doped hard carbon skeleton, can provide an excellent active site for the storage of potassium ions. Ultrasonic intensification significantly reduces the elution time required for neutralization and eliminates the need for a forced increase in elution temperature and rate to improve elution efficiency. In the continuous synthesis process, the recycled chemical activation agent not only does not destroy the activation effect but also has stable activation performance and a good driving force for the growth of activated carbon quality (the specific surface area is 1000 ∼ m 2 g− 1 ). Moreover, the sulfur content of the prepared hard carbon anode gradually decreases, whereas its electrical conductivity gradually increases, resulting in an increase in its potassium ions storage capacity. The carbon anode prepared by chemical activation agent after four cycles has a high reversible capacity of 290 mAh g− 1 at 0.5 A g− 1 and excellent cycling stability (99.5% hold rate at 0.5 A g− 1 after 400 cycles). The galvanostatic intermittent titration technique results show that appropriate sulfur content and perfect carbon skeleton structure can promote potassium ions intercalation kinetics. In conclusion, the chemical activation agent cycling strategy can be used to achieve the continuous synthesis of petroleum coke-based potassium ion battery anode. [Display omitted] • The ultrasonication assisted successive synthesis of HSPC-based AC was researched. • The different post-treatment cost of AC was found. • Serial analysis was used to elucidate ultrasonication enhancement mechanism. • The recycle of K 2 CO 3 registered a stable activation performance with growth of AC quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale development of metal-loaded adsorbents is restricted due to complicated preparation methods, poor dispersion of metal particles, and small specific surface area. Pistia stratiotes (PS) has a unique biological vein structure; it can adsorb and fix nickel evenly in its organism. The prepared high-performance desulfurization adsorbent PSAC-Ni(X) and loaded Ni nanoparticles are more uniform and smaller in diameter. However, in the control experiment, the dispersion and diameter of Ni particles of PSLAC@Ni prepared by the impregnation method were all lesser than that of PSAC-Ni(X). PSLAC@Ni had an adsorption desulfurization capacity of only 53 mg g−1. PS was cultured in four different Ni concentration solutions since the Ni concentration gradually decreases with the absorption of Ni by PS. Then the leaves and roots of the corresponding plants were prepared into leaf-based adsorbents and root-based adsorbents, respectively. The adsorption desulfurization test showed that the adsorption desulfurization capacity of the leaf-based adsorbent and the root-based adsorbent of the plants cultivated in the four kinds of Ni concentration solutions were 113, 108, 111, and 111 mg g−1. This demonstrates that the desulfurization capacity of the adsorbent prepared by this method does not change significantly with varying Ni content in the solution. This method not only produces high-performance desulfurization adsorbent from PS, but it also degrades heavy metals in water, playing a double role in the development of a green and friendly environment. [Display omitted] • The PSAC-Ni(X) prepared by the phytoremediation method had excellent physical structure. • The decrease of Ni content in water did not affect the adsorptive desulfurization capacity of PSAC-Ni(X). • The adsorption capacity of PSAC-Ni(X) for DBT was up to 113 mg g−1. • This research integrates the degradation of heavy metals in water with the preparation of desulfurization adsorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Development of induction heating SPIF system to provide localized heating to deform Ti-6AI-4V alloy sheet. • A Nickel ball-roller forming tool has been integrated into the SPIF system to improve the surface quality. • The relation between mechanical and microstructural behaviours was investigated by analysing forming force, geometric accuracy, thickness profile and surface roughness with recrystallisation, grain refinement and micro-hardness throughout the process. • A Finite Element (FE) model was established to verify the experimental results. The FE obtained strain and strain rate history was used as input to form a constitutive model to investigate the microstructural evolution. • Arrhenius model has been established by calculating of Zener-Hollomon parameter (Z-parameter) to correlate the grain size and micro-hardness at specific regions. The conventional single point incremental forming (SPIF) process is unable to perform high geometrical accuracy and formability for the Ti-6AI-4V alloy sheet. In response, this article has proposed a reliable high-frequency induction heating-assisted SPIF system. Rapid localised heating (600 ℃ and 700 ℃) was integrated with a synchronized Inconel 625 Nickel alloy ball-roller forming tool to achieve high geometric accuracy and surface quality. This article also produced new insights into correlating mechanical and microstructural properties in SPIF at 600 ℃ and 700 ℃. By investigating the mechanical properties (forming force, geometric accuracy, thickness profile), an explicit finite element (FE) simulation was established to predict the results. The output strain history from the FE simulations was used as input and integrated with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and micro-hardness characterisations, to form a constitutive model (Arrhenius model) to calculate the Zener-Hollomon parameter (Z-parameter). The grain size and micro-hardness experimental results were correlated with Z-parameter calculation to predict the microstructural development at the initial, middle, and final stages of the deformation process. The mechanical results revealed that the 700 ℃ experiment performed enhanced geometric accuracy and thickness profile, with a reduced forming force. However, the surface quality is reduced as the lubricant dissipated rapidly, while the ball-roller tool effectively compensated for this behaviour by reducing the friction. At the microstructural level, 600 ℃ revealed strong strain hardening and grain deformation, and 700 ℃ revealed better grain refinement by dynamic recovery (DRV) and dynamic recrystallisation (DRX). A proportional relationship between Z parameters and grain size and a low-high-low micro-hardness profile was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven hundred and twenty-six adult subjects in Taiwan categorized themselves into one of six identities: Taiwanese, Taiwanese but Chinese too, Chinese, Chinese but Taiwanese too, new Taiwanese, or general Chinese. The six identity groups had almost equally high rating scores of Taiwan on an index of social identification, but differed in their degree of identification with China. Participants who incorporated Taiwanese as a part or the whole of their self-identity were psychologically distant from China. By investigating the relationship between ethnic identities chosen by people in Taiwan and their social identification with Taiwan versus China as two categories of nationalism, the results of the present study indicate that the bases of Chinese identification are mainly cultural and have a historical connection with China, while the basis of Taiwanese identification is mainly the sharing of life space in the Taiwanese district from which the people have acquired a kind of primordial attachment, regardless of their ethnic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth rate plays a critical role in the pig industry and is related to quantitative traits controlled by many genes. Here, we aimed to identify causative mutations and candidate genes responsible for pig growth traits. In this study, 2360 Duroc pigs were used to detect significant additive, dominance, and epistatic effects associated with growth traits. As a result, a total number of 32 significant SNPs for additive or dominance effects were found to be associated with various factors, including adjusted age at a specified weight (AGE), average daily gain (ADG), backfat thickness (BF), and loin muscle depth (LMD). In addition, the detected additive significant SNPs explained 2.49%, 3.02%, 3.18%, and 1.96% of the deregressed estimated breeding value (DEBV) variance for AGE, ADG, BF, and LMD, respectively, while significant dominance SNPs could explain 2.24%, 13.26%, and 4.08% of AGE, BF, and LMD, respectively. Meanwhile, a total of 805 significant epistatic effects SNPs were associated with one of ADG, AGE, and LMD, from which 11 sub-networks were constructed. In total, 46 potential genes involved in muscle development, fat deposition, and regulation of cell growth were considered as candidates for growth traits, including CD55 and NRIP1 for AGE and ADG, TRIP11 and MIS2 for BF, and VRTN and ZEB2 for LMD, respectively. Generally, in this study, we detected both new and reported variants and potential candidate genes for growth traits of Duroc pigs, which might to be taken into account in future molecular breeding programs to improve the growth performance of pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Utilizing both purebred and crossbred data in animal genetics is widely recognized as an optimal strategy for enhancing the predictive accuracy of breeding values. Practically, the different genetic background among several purebred populations and their crossbred offspring populations limits the application of traditional prediction methods. Several studies endeavor to predict the crossbred performance via the partial relationship, which divides the data into distinct sub-populations based on the common genetic background, such as one single purebred population and its corresponding crossbred descendant. However, this strategy makes prediction inaccurate due to ignoring half of the parental information of crossbreed animals. Furthermore, dominance effects, although playing a significant role in crossbreeding systems, cannot be modeled under such a prediction model. Results To overcome this weakness, we developed a novel multi-breed single-step model using metafounders to assess ancestral relationships across diverse breeds under a unified framework. We proposed to use multi-breed dominance combined relationship matrices to model additive and dominance effects simultaneously. Our method provides a straightforward way to evaluate the heterosis of crossbreeds and the breeding values of purebred parents efficiently and accurately. We performed simulation and real data analyses to verify the potential of our proposed method. Our proposed model improved prediction accuracy under all scenarios considered compared to commonly used methods. Availability and implementation The software for implementing our method is available at https://github.com/CAU-TeamLiuJF/MAGE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excreta traits comprise a very important characteristic in breeding that have been neglected for a long time. With the growth of intensive pig farming, plenty of environment problems have been raised, and people have begun to pay attention to pig excreta behaviors from genetics and breeding perspectives. However, the genetic architecture of excreta traits remains unclear. To investigate the genetic architecture of excreta traits in pigs, eight excreta traits and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were analyzed in this study. We performed genome‐wide association studies (GWASs) on 213 Yorkshire pigs and estimated genetic parameters for a total number of 290 pigs, comprising 213 Yorkshire, 52 Landrace and 25 Duroc. After analysis, eight and 22 genome‐wide significant SNPs were detected for FCR and the eight excreta traits in single‐trait GWASs separately, and 18 were detected in a multi‐trait meta‐analysis for excreta traits, six of which were detected in both the single‐trait and the multi‐trait GWAS. Eighty, 182 and 133 genes were detected within 1 Mb of the genome‐wide significant SNPs for FCR, excreta traits and multi‐trait meta‐analysis, respectively. Five candidate genes (BCKDC, DBT, ANKRD7, SHPRH and HCRT) with biochemical and physiological effects relevant to feed efficiency and excreta traits might be interesting markers for future breeding. Meanwhile, functional enrichment analysis indicates that most of the significant pathways are associated with the glutathione catabolic process, DNA topological change and replication fork protection complex. This study reveals the architecture of excreta traits in commercial pigs and offers an opportunity for decreasing the pollution from excreta using genomic selection in pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of electrical conductivity limits the electrochemical kinetic rate of the electrode material, resulting in the inability to reach its theoretical capacity. A facile method is adopted to improve the intrinsic conductivity of binary NiS2/Ni3S4 hybrid nickel sulfide, with the doping of transition metal atoms Co, Mn and Ag. Through the introduction of heteroatoms, the electronic structure of the electrode material is modified and the electrical conductivity is significantly improved, thus enhancing its electrochemical performance. The improvement of conductivity is attributed to the formation of intermediate bands of transition metals and the redistribution of electrons, and the result is demonstrated by experimental and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. As a result, the NiS2/Ni3S4 hybrid nickel sulfide after 0.5% amount of Co-doping reaches the highest specific capacitance of 2874 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, increasing specific capacitance of 653 F g−1 as 29.4% of the specific capacitance of non-doped nickel sulfide. The Co doped nickel sulfide also exhibits remarkable cycling stability compared with non-doped nickel sulfide. The assembled 2% Co-doped nickel sulfide//rGO, 0.5% Mn-doped nickel sulfide//rGO and 0.5% Ag-doped nickel sulfide//rGO asymmetric supercapacitors show a specific energy density of 36.6, 36.1 and 36.0 W h kg−1 at a power density of 800 W kg−1. This study provides a useful insight into the fabrication of high performance pseudocapacitive materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report a kind of composite phase change materials (PCMs) fabricated by the vacuum impregnation method in which ER functions as the filter and graphite foams (GFs) serve as the supporting framework, which is fabricated from polyurethane (PU) foam. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) serve as modifiers. Compared with pure ER, the ER/GFs show an excellent performance improvement; the resulting supercooling degree was reduced by ∼59 °C and thermal conductivity was improved to 56.93 W m−1 K−1, more than 86-folds that of pure ER, resulting in a tremendous latent heat-releasing percentage enhancement of 77.09%. This demonstrates that such ER/GFs composites can be used for efficient solar-thermal energy conversion, and have a low supercooling degree, good leakage resistance, and high thermal conductivity, mitigating the severe issues of ER and presenting a new strategy for enhancing the solar energy storage performance. [Display omitted] • The MWCNTs modified GFs by the template method used in the solar-thermal conversion process. • The effects of MWCNTs modification with different mass fractions on the properties of GFs and ER/GFs were studied. • The template method was selected to prepare GFs to avoid the high-pressure foaming process traditionally. • The prepared ER/GF 0 has a high thermal conductivity of 56.93 W m−1 K−1. • The solar-thermal conversion and storage mechanism have been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rigid polyurethane, a common insulation material, is difficult to degrade naturally and poses significant health and environmental risk. Consequently, the cost-effective and efficient reuse of these solid wastes is a great challenge. Herein, we report an in-situ construction of hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) hydrophobic films on rigid polyurethane waste particle (RPUWP) as an accumulated packing layer in the gas-liquid pre-separator for gas pre-dehydration. The RPUWP grafted with HDTMS (P-HDTMS) packing layer exhibits excellent hydrophobicity in the air, acid (pH = 1), alkali (pH = 14), and high-temperature (over 95 ℃) resistance. Also, the gas pre-dehydration performance of the accumulated P-HDTMS packing layer in the gas-liquid pre-separator was evaluated by the water dew point depression (ΔT d). It is worth mentioning that the accumulated packing layer can stabilize and greatly reduce the ΔT d by 17.8 ℃ in over 48-hour uninterrupted operation through the coalescence separation mechanism. Therefore, the low-cost accumulated P-HDTMS packing layer is expected to be an ideal candidate material for gas pre-dehydration in large-scale practical applications. This work not only provides a novel method for the resource utilization of plastic solid wastes but also provides a hitherto unexplored perspective for gas dehydration in industrial production. [Display omitted] • A waste-to-resource strategy of rigid polyurethane solid waste is introduced. • The mechanism of two steps in-situ grafting process is proposed. • The stacked P-HDTMS packing layer exhibits remarkable gas pre-dehydration performance. • The mechanism of gas-liquid coalescence separation is revealed. • The as-prepared material can withstand strong acid/alkali and high-temperature solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new analytical method for the determination of carbendazim (MBC) and thiabendazole (TBZ) in apples is reported, based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupling HPLC with fluorescence detection. The main SPME and HPLC experimental conditions were optimized. The apples were first blended and centrifuged. Then, an aliquot of the resulting solution was subjected to SPME on a 60 µm polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB) fibre for 35 min at room temperature with the solution being stirred at 1100 rev min-1. The extracted pesticides on the SPME fibre were desorbed in the mobile phase into the SPME/HPLC interface for HPLC analysis. The method was linear over the range 0.01-1 mg kg-1 in apples for both MBC and TBZ, with detection limits of 0.005 and 0.003 mg kg-1 and correlation coefficients of 0.9995 and 0.9998, respectively. The average recoveries for MBC and TBZ were 91.5 and 92.3% with the relative standard deviations (RSD) of 4.7 and 4.1% at the 0.1 mg kg-1 level, and 94.6 and 96.1% with RSD of 3.3 and 3.8% at the 0.5 mg kg-1 level, respectively. The method is simple, sensitive, organic solvent-free and is suitable for the determination of MBC and TBZ in apples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The cross-linked hierarchical CuO@CoNi LDH was facilely synthesized. • The cross-linked CuO@CoNi LDH growing on Cu foams has obviously stronger adhesive force. • The assembled CF@CuO@CoNi LDH 1–4//RGO asymmetric supercapacitor indicates extraordinary energy density. Core-shell nanostructured compounds are considered as promising electrode materials for supercapacitors in virtue of their facile accessibility to active sites and high electrical conductivity, yet always limited by low capacity or poor cyclic stability because of the weak combination or shedding of active materials from the substrate. To address this issue, we first synthesize three-dimensional (3D) CuO cross-linked nanosheet aggregates grown on Cu foams (CF) by wet chemical oxidation, and further demonstrate the growth of ultra-thin cobalt-nickel layered double hydroxides (CoNi LDH) onto the core of 3D CuO cross-linked nanosheet aggregates by electrodeposition. In this way, we find that the cross-linked CuO@CoNi LDH growing on Cu foams has stronger adhesive force. The as-prepared core-shell nanohybrid (CF@CuO@CoNi LDH) is featured with a high specific capacity (319.4 mAh·g−1 at 1 A·g−1), excellent rate performance and long cycling stability. The as-assembled CF@CuO@CoNi LDH 1–4//RGO asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) delivers an ultra-high energy density of 92.5 Wh·kg−1 at a power density of 400 W·kg−1, as well as an excellent cycling performance with capacitance retention of 83.8% after 8000 cycles at 5 A·g−1. These results indicate that the cross-linked hybrid is a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors, and could provide new insight into the synthesis of novel core-shell nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]