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Leaf water storage capacity and osmotic strength are important traits enabling species to adapt to environments that are often moisture limited. However, whether these drought tolerance traits are correlated with the species diversification rate (DR) of plant lineages is yet to be determined. In this study, we selected a species‐rich genus (Primulina) of plants widely distributed in karst regions in which species frequently experience variable periods of drought. We measured water storage capacity‐related traits (including leaf thickness and water content per mass) and saturated osmotic strength in the leaves of 58 Primulina species growing in a common garden. Subsequently, using phylogenetic methods, we examined the relationships between the rate of species diversification and the drought tolerance traits and between the species DR and evolutionary rates of these traits. We found that neither water storage capacity nor saturated osmotic strength showed significant relationships with the rate of species diversification. However, the evolutionary rate of saturated osmotic strength showed a significant correlation with the species DR, although no comparable significant relationship was detected regarding the evolutionary rate of water storage capacity. Our study indicates that the diversification among Primulina species has typically been accompanied by an extensive divergence of leaf osmotic strength but not a divergence in leaf water storage capacity. These findings will enhance our current understanding of how drought tolerance influences the diversification of plant species in karst regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversification rates are critically important for understanding patterns of species richness among clades. However, the effects of climatic niche width on plant diversification rates remain to be elucidated. Based on the phylogenetic, climatic, and distributional information of angiosperms in China, a total of 26 906 species from 182 families were included in this study. We aimed to test relationships between diversification rate and climatic niche width and climatic niche width related variables (including climatic niche divergence, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate) using phylogenetic methods. We found that climatic niche divergence had the largest unique contribution to the diversification rate, while the unique effects of climatic niche width, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate on the diversification rate were negligible. We also observed that the relationship between diversification rate and climatic niche divergence was significantly stronger than the null assumption (artefactual relationship between diversification and clade‐level climatic niche width by sampling more species). Our study supports the hypothesis that wider family climatic niche widths explain faster diversification rates through a higher climatic niche divergence rather than through higher geographic extent, higher climatic niche evolutionary rate, or separated climatic niche position. Hence, the results provide a potential explanation for large‐scale diversity patterns within families of plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a remarkable offset deactivation effect of K and P on MnEuOx SCR catalyst has been found. Experimental results showed that the NO conversion over K−P poisoned catalyst was close to 80 % at 250 °C. Several characterization techniques containing NH3‐TPD, XPS, H2‐TPR, XRD and in situ DRIFT were used to reveal the mechanism of the offset effect. The characterization of NH3‐TPD and H2‐TPR suggested that the introduction of P on MnEuOx‐K could improve its surface acidity and redox ability. Moreover, the content of chemisorbed oxygen and Mn4+ were markedly restored under the situation that the toxic elements were coexistent on catalyst surface. The strong interaction between K and P might be the major reason for the offset deactivation effect. More specifically, PO3− species were preferentially bonded with the surface potassium species and released MnO2 active sites poisoned by K. Therefore, the highly active MnO2 sites might be protected and the catalytic activity could be restored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional method for synthesizing gold nanobipyramids (AuNBPs) is well established. However, the cytotoxicity resulting from the conjugates between hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and gold limits their biomedical applications. This study introduces a dual surfactant approach with CTAB and sodium oleate (NaOL) in the seed‐mediated synthesis of the AuNBPs, which can significantly reduce the CTAB concentration to 10 mM. Additionally, optimal growth conditions are achieved by varying the volumes of seed solution, AgNO3, and HCl. Under low CTAB concentrations, AuNBPs with tunable sizes and localized surface plasmon resonances between 600 and 1200 nm are successfully synthesized, as characterized by UV–vis‐NIR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) simulations. This work demonstrates a method for synthesizing AuNBPs at low CTAB concentrations using binary surfactants and provides a framework applicable to the synthesis of other metallic nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]